BANG-BONG-BANG

No! I have not misspelt the movie BANG BANG and this is not its preview either. Well, this has nothing to do with any movie. Rather, this is the personality of a man who has been amazingly insightful about life and beyond life. No, he ain't a saint; not (completely) crazy; not blindly spiritual; not my new role model. He is just another common man of my age. But what makes him stand out? An artist! Not by profession (yet), but by nature. Fascinated by theatre, cinema, art, nature at a very young age (when he was 4 years old!), he embarked on to this wild journey from a remote place in north-east to scale great heights in the city of dreams – Mumbai!

A seamless connection between his thoughts and delivery is awe-inspiring. It is not rocket science. It is just a plain, simple life. But you (I) have not seen life, the way he sees. Trust me, it is a different world.

I have never found answers to any of my deep and innermost questions. I do not believe in any spiritual guru and neither in his blessings. I do not meditate. But every time, I found my discussions with this guy to be so unique and very unlike my usual discussions with my circle. I do not claim that he has provided me with all worldly answers. Duh! No way! Yet, there is this sense of direction and clarity about life in general.

Unable to recollect many, just quoting a few of his views (screw my bad memory).

“Only when you let your sub-conscious to take over your conscious mind, will you begin to appreciate life. That is when you begin the true journey of life.”

I was dumbfounded.

On another instance, he logically contradicted my views against The Chanakya’s wisdom, “He who is overly attached to his family, experiences fear and sorrow, for the root of all grief is attachment. Thus one should discard attachment to be happy.”

I vehemently opposed it. I believe or rather used to believe, happiness is family; family is happiness.

Although he was not against my views, he asked me to define happiness. It is not as easy as it sounds. I stumbled, searched for it. I could not define it.

Later, he remarked, true happiness is beyond family. When your roots are tied with your family, you fail to explore the world beyond your family.

And thus, he certified the Chanakya’s words successfully.

How simple and elegant. A true artist. Dumbfounded.

Speaking of artist, I said, you see things differently about life probably because you are an artist. He denies. 

Every individual, irrespective of their profession can be an artist, he says. Learn to appreciate everything in life. Life is not a Salman Khan movie (btw he is eagerly waiting for the release of kick, not for Salman, but for Nawaz Siddiqui) where everything goes in favour of you. Learn to find the silver lining at every stage. Do not be in a rush. You will reach your destiny when it is time. Meanwhile, enjoy the journey!

Just dumbfounded!

All of this might sound like I have turned in to his disciple or you (I) may have even heard this before. But like I said, when you hear from the horse's mouth, it feels like the first time, each time. What began as a causal and curious experiment of cooking pan-Indian cuisines for lunch/dinner has now grown much more significant. It is no more a delight just to my tummy but to my mind too.

Once I poked this non-commercial movie freak, who is the best director in Bollywood currently? He replied, “Ek la**a bi nai hai”.

Maybe not currently, but I reckon in the near future, there will be one named “Amitav Deb.”

My best wishes!