No shortcuts

“Talent is the ability to do something over and over again, the right way!” I got this message one morning from Pooja… It was a simple line and it was amazing how it put so many things in perspective for me… Right through my childhood, people who could do things that were out of the ordinary or mundane fascinated me… It was my belief then that some of us are born with special powers that makes them capable of things that others are not… But I realized with time that this was not true. If a person does not feel pressurized to mould himself to a prescribed culture then he finds that innate specialty that he possesses. In school when all my friends were interested in sports, I chose reading and a whole new world opened out to me… It was scary because none of my friends were into reading and I was often the butt of ridicule… Then came adolescence where all my friends chased girls and I wasn’t remotely interested… There were jibes and insults but strangely it couldn’t change me enough to conform… I kept at reading, writing letters, making pen pals and other stuff that kept me happy. It wasn’t as if I was planning to make writing my career (I wanted to be a nuclear physicist then)… it was just something that gave me joy. Also during the local festivals in my hometown, especially Ganesh Utsav and the Navratri, I would enjoy singing... Again not something boys my age appreciated. I admit it was uncomfortable to be different and though I was being true to myself, it didn’t quite fit into what boys my age were meant to do… But today I write for a living, I paint and sing as a hobby and the same friends who looked upon me with disdain are appreciative of my profession. And I have managed to do all this because I just kept at it despite peer pressure and at times even self-doubt. Today, when I get a call from people who watch my work in a film and speak of a particular line may have moved them, at times I’m surprised at how easily I might have written the line. In fact most of the lines that have got appreciation have been written effortlessly. And it just makes me believe that you have to be you in whatever you do and at times some of it manages to touch a chord with others. When that happens more and more, the applause you get is what makes you `talented’ in the world’s eyes. Very rarely do you come across a line you write or a note you sing where you can preempt the effect it’s going to have… Most books on the craft of writing (and I have read a lot of them) can be summed up in one word WRITE… That’s all you need to do to be a writer… My music teacher told me this morning that the only way to become a singer is to SING… “There is no elevator in this profession… You have to climb the stairs to reach levels!” he said smiling. So whether you want to be a singer, painter, writer or an astronaut, the only way is to pull up your socks and start climbing the stairs… Elevators don’t exist in the world of talent!