Believing in Idiots

Last month an upcoming production house hired me as their first in-house writer. And just a year ago I was going through the biggest struggle of my life. My decision to give up the job of a doctor in the Armed Forces to join in the Hindi film industry had caused an unprecedented disapproval for me by my family. The boy whose futile grades had always made them swell with an unreasonable pride was just not supposed to give up everything for a lesser and riskier life. I was called names. I was emotionally blackmailed. But since I refused to bend, they had to. Today, things are better. Although my dad still does not talk to me, and although not a single day has passed when I have not thought about all that has happened and all that is at stake, all is well. Today I called my mom and asked her to go for a movie ASAP, and to take dad with her too. The movie is what the entire country is dying to watch today. The movie is what the entire country should watch soon. Two years ago there came a movie that talked about taking care of your child. The commercial success of that film actually caused a significant change. Hope the same happens again, this time for people like us.

Last year, when I asked my mom to trust me for one final time, she had one big argument, among others – what would the people say! These ‘people’ are the immediate and extended family, and neighbours, and all those who have showered their honest or pretentious compliments on my parents for my ‘achievements’ since childhood. I used to tell my mom, and I still do, that I do not give a damn to what ‘people’ think or say. The only thing that matters to me is whether my own parents believe in me. But I understand that they are not wrong. The entire system is based on the mad rush for these conventional ‘achievements’. My parents are away from us, and surrounded by ‘people’. And they form a part of the ‘people’ for the parents of some other kid. And this has resulted in the society we have today – a society where a man has to take decisions not from his heart, but thinking of the ‘people’ around him.

Today, I have got a ‘fixed job’ in a ‘company’, never mind I am still a writer. I get something as a ‘salary’, never mind my friends are earning almost twice that amount as Army doctors. All those who were busy talking about me got tired long ago and had moved on with their own petty complications of life. They ‘feel good’ when they come to know about this recent ‘progress’ of mine. Perhaps making them happy is as easy as infuriating them. Only, neither matters to me. It has been thirty months since I went home or met my dad. And at times I do feel like going back for a short vacation. I have no idea when that will happen. But I know that I am ecstatic at the life I could create for myself, against all odds. And the only people I have to thank are those who helped me during the toughest phase of my life, when my own ‘people’ had denounced me as a disillusioned idiot.

For the way it relates to me, Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots is my favourite movie of the year. For the way the medium of cinema is used, it is possibly the best too. This post is perhaps the most personal post on this blog. But all inhibitions are actually shattered when you experience something as warm and wonderful as this. I won’t recommend this movie to you. I recommend this to your parents. Make sure they go for it.