ગત રવિવારે
‘સ્પેકટ્રોમીટર’માં શાહરુખ ખાનની યેલ યુનિવર્સીટી (અમેરિકા)માં અપાયેલી
અને મને બહુ ગમેલી સ્પીચનો અનુવાદ મેં લખ્યો, અને બધાને એટલો ગમ્યો કે હજુ
યે એના ખાસ્સા પોઝિટીવ ફીડબેક મને મળે છે. સ્પીચ જ એવી દમદાર અને બોલનારો
પણ દિલદાર. મેં તો એ અપાઈ એ જ સાંજે ટુકડે ટુકડે સાંભળી અને પછી એની નેટ પર
આસાનીથી ઉપલબ્ધ ‘ટ્રાન્સસ્ક્રિપ્ટ’ વાંચી અને પૂરું થવા આવ્યું ત્યાં જ
અંતરથી અવાજ ઉઠ્યો – જેબ્બાત ! આ તો પબ્લિક સુધી ના પહોંચાડીએ તો કચવાટ થાય
અને સડસડાટ એકી બેઠકે એનો અનુવાદ થઇ જ ગયો.
ફિલ કલાકારોને આજે ય રાત્રે નોકરી માટે બહાર નીકળતી યુવતીઓની માફક
શંકાથી જ જોતો ઘેલા ઘનચક્કરોનો આખો એક વર્ગ ભારતમાં બહુમતીમાં જ છે , ને
આપણામાં રહેલી રૂઢ ધાર્મિકતાને લીધે મોટા ભાગનાને આધુનિક સિનેસ્ટાર્સ માટે
અંદરથી કોઈ અજીબ સુગ હોય છે કે ખલનાયકની જેમ એમના પર શંકા જ કરતા ફરે છે.
ને કોઈ આધારપુરાવા વિનાની મનઘડંત વાતો જાણે પોતે રૂબરૂ એની સાથે રોજ હાજર
હોય એટલા કોન્ફિડન્સથી એમની બદનામી માટે કરતા હોય છે. આક્ષેપો ય નહિ. સીધા
ચુકાદા જ ! ચોક્કસ, વ્યક્તિત્વને વગર મળ્યે પણ માપી શકાય , પણ એ માટે
‘બિટ્વીન ધ લાઈન્સ’ વાંચતી સુક્ષ્મ દ્રષ્ટિ જોઈએ. જે-તે વ્યક્તિનો
તટસ્થભાવે ઊંડો અભ્યાસ જોઈએ. સચીનની માફક જ શાહરુખ (બધા જ ખાન !
) પણ મારી ટીનએજનો હિસ્સો રહ્યો છે. એના
બેસુમાર ઇન્ટરવ્યુઝ જોયા વાંચ્યા છે. એના પરના પુસ્તકો , દોસ્તોની વાતો અને
અંગત અનુભવો. એણે પસંદ કરેલી ફિલ્મો. બધું જ. અને મેં તો વર્ષો પહેલા એક
વાર લખેલું જ છે કે
શાહરુખની સેન્સ ઓફ હ્યુમર અને સેન્સ ઓફ લિટરેચર
ઓસ્કાર વાઈલ્ડની યાદ દેવડાવે છે ! (કોણ ઓસ્કાર ને કોણ વાઈલ્ડ એવું
પૂછનારાઓ તેલ પાયેલા બેઝબોલ બેટની યાદ મને દેવડાવશે !!
)
અને એટલે જ સહેજે ય ખબર પડી જાય કે આ વ્યાખ્યાનમાં એણે જે વાતો કરી છે, એ
એની જ છે. એમાં મારાં જેવા માટે જુનું સાતત્ય ઉર્ફે કન્ઝીસ્ટન્સી છે. આ
વાતો છુટા છવાયા સ્વરૂપે એ અગાઉ લાઈવ/ પ્રિન્ટેડ ઇન્ટરવ્યુઝમાં ય કરી
ચુક્યો છે. અરે, બિલ્લુ જેવી ફિલ્મના પડદે પણ એની આવી જ એક ભાવવાહી સ્પીચની
‘એક્ટિંગ’માં એક સચ્ચાઈનો રણકો ડોકાતો હતો (કલ્પના અને વાસ્તવના આ અભિન્ન
સંબંધની વાત પણ એણે આ પ્રવચનમાં માંડી છે) અને સમજ્યા વગર “આ તો કયાંકથી
ઉઠાવેલો / કોઈકનો કન્ટેન્ટ હશે” વાળા આક્ષેપો અંગે આગોતરી મજાક આ જ
સ્પીચમાં ય એણે કરી જ છે !
કમનસીબે, લેખમાં મારે કેટલીક મૂળ મર્મને
જરાય નુકસાન ના થાય એમ અમુક વાતો લંબાણ ટાળવા કાઢવી પડી, એમાં સ્વાભાવિક
ભોગ એની આવી બે-ત્રણ ટ્રેડમાર્ક હ્યુમરનો ય લેવાઈ ગયો !
શાહરુખ અગાઉ પણ સરસ વ્યાખ્યાનો કરી ચુક્યો છે અને જે સ્થિતિમાંથી એ
એરપોર્ટેથી ત્યાં આવ્યો, અને અમેરિકાની પ્રતિષ્ઠિત યુનિવર્સીટીઓમાં જે રીતે
‘સીસ્ટમ’નો દબદબો છે, એ જોતા એણે પ્રવચન વાંચ્યું એમાં કશું ય અજુગતું
લાગતું નથી. (ઘણી મોટી સંસ્થાઓમાં પ્રવચનની સ્ક્રિપ્ટ અગાઉથી લઇ લેવાનો ને
એને ત્યારે શ્રોતાઓને વહેંચવા /વળગી રહેવાનો ય રિવાજ હોય છે.)અને શાહરુખ
ઉમદા સ્પીકર છે, પણ કંઈ પ્રોફેશનલ સ્પીકર કે ઘડાયેલો ફિલસૂફ નથી કે આટલું
લાંબુ મોઢે જ બોલે.
આ યેલવાળા વિડીયોમાં ય અંતે પ્રશ્નોત્તરી
જોજો. જે તો જો કે હમેશ મુજબ એણે લાઈવ કરી જ છે. અને ૧૨૦૦થી વધુ
પ્રવચનો ના મારાં અનુભવે ( ને ૩૦૦થી વધુ વક્તૃત્વ સ્પર્ધાય ખરી !
) હું ખાતરીથી પારખી લઉં છું કે કોણ અંદરથી
ગમતી વાત કરે છે ને કોણ ઓડિયન્સને રિઝવવા ગોખણપટ્ટી કરે છે. (નાટક જ કરવું
હોય ઈમ્પ્રેશન જમાવવા – તો વાંક-અદેખાઓ ભૂલી જાય છે કે એ કાબેલ અભિનેતા છે.
ખોટેખોટા વેવલાવેડા ચાલુ પ્રવચને આસાની થી રિહર્સલ કરી ઉમેરી ચુક્યો હોત!
કે પંચલાઈન્સનો ગંજ કોઈ પાસે તૈયાર કરાવી ચુક્યો હોત.
)
એની વે, મને તો આ માણવાની બહુ મજા પડી, કારણ કે એનું ઘણુંખરું અનુસંધાન
મારા જીવન અને સો કોલ્ડ ચિંતન સાથે ય મળે છે. બહુ બધા દોસ્તોને ય ગમ્યું.
શાહરુખનું પરફોર્મન્સ ના ગમ્યું હોય ત્યારે ટીકા કરી હોય ને ગમ્યું હોય
ત્યારે પ્રશંસા. સિમ્પલ ! શાહરુખ કે કોઈ પણનું જે ગમે તે વખાણવું ને ના ગમે
તો વખોડવું એમાં ક્યાંક ગમી જવાનો અંગત રાગ હોતો હશે, પણ દ્વેષ તો હરગીઝ
નહિ
એટલે જ એનો અનુવાદ કરવામાં મેં એ ખાસ
અટક્યા વિના ફટાફટ કર્યો હોવા છતાં એ વાંચનાર સુધી ભારેખમ કે અર્થને ઓળખ્યા
વિનાના શબ્દકોશ જેવા યાંત્રિક ભાષાંતર જેવો ના જ રહે એની પૂરી કાળજી રાખી
હતી. અહીં મૂળ સ્પીચ જ શેર કરી દઉં છું, એટલે મર્મ જરાય જોખમાય નહિ એ રીતે
જરા બીજી ભાષામાંથી ગુજરાતીમાં લઇ આવતી વખતે એની ફ્લેવર ઉમેરવાનું કર્મ કેમ
થયું, એનો રસિકજનો (જે મુઠ્ઠીભર જ હોવાના !
) ને અંદાજ આવે. અલબત્ત નજર સામે આવી રેડી
સ્ટોરી ઉઘાડેછોગ પડી હોવા છતાં ગુજરાતી મીડિયામાંથી કોઈએ એની નોંધ પણ ના
લેવાની જે પરંપરાગત ઉદાસીનતા દાખવી એમાં આગળ રહેવાના રાજીપા કરતા રંજ વધુ
થયો. (હવે આ સમજનારા તો વેઢાભર માંડ હશે !)
તો આ રહ્યો યેલની સ્પીચનો વિડીયો અને નીચે મૂળ અંગ્રેજી
ટ્રાન્સસ્ક્રિપશન ( જે વાંચીને ખાતરી થશે યેલના અધિકારી/વિદ્યાર્થી કે
અંગ્રેજી પત્રકારો કે પછી શાહરુખ પણ વિચારોના ધોધને કાગળ પર વહાવવા જાય
ત્યારે સ્પેલિંગ / ગ્રામરની ક્યાંક સાહજીક ઐસી તૈસી થઇ જાય છે lolzzzz) પણ
અત્યાર પૂરતું મૂકી દઉં છું.
આ પોસ્ટના છેડે આ બધું જોઈ જાણી વાંચી ચુકેલાઓ માટે
રીડરબિરાદર બ્રિજેશ મુલીયાએ મને મોકલાવેલી એક પ્રમાણમાં તાજા ઇન્ટરવ્યૂનો
વિડીયો બોનસમાં છે. જેમાં એનામાં છુપાયેલું લાગણીશીલ બાળક વારંવાર બહાર આવી
જાય છે, જેને મારાંમાં વસતું એવું જ બાળક કદાચ ઓળખી લે છે !
# અંગ્રેજીમાં મૂળ લખાણ :
“Good evening everyone,
I’d like to thank you all for giving me the opportunity to be here. I
also want to thank Isha for following up with the most disorganised and
incommunicative person in the world in order to fix today’s meeting
with all of you. Thanks I really am honoured and extremely happy to be
here.
I have memories of being in Yale five years ago. It was December and
so damn cold that while professing love to my leading lady and singing a
Bollywood ditty….which went something like this…..Kabhie alvida na
kehna….my mouth froze itself to death… I say death because as I inched
closer to kiss her…. mouthing the words kabhi alvida…na…my mouth and jaw
just locked….like this.
So I am hoping my second outing to your wonderful university turns
out differently because it would be highly embarrassing if I said “good
evening Yaleites” or “Yalers” or whatever you guys are called and got
stuck at… yaaaaa….that wouldn’t make for much of a speech.
I was told not to dwell too much on my movies when I spoke to you, I
am to give you an inspirational talk — tell you stuff you can think
about when you leave this room.
That worries me, it gives me performance anxiety. Here you are, 1500
of you, hoping to hear words of wisdom from this sexy, desirable man,
who couldn’t kiss a girl, last time he was in Yale because it was too
cold. But I’m not that guy, I mean, I’m sexy and desirable for sure but
I’m not about to leave you anymore inspired than when you walked in
here.
I read this lame joke on Google the other day (yes I pick everything
up from Google, even the script of my next movie and I’m not ashamed of
it — you can pick me up on Google too if you like!)
Anyway, the joke went like this — a dying man, gasping for breath,
desperately gestured to the priest by his side for a piece of paper.
With great effort, he then wrote a few words on it, handed it to the
priest and passed away. The priest kept the paper in his pocket and
forgot all about it until the final service. Here he suddenly recalled
the dead man’s last scribble. Unfolding the paper, he told the funereal
congregation that he was about to read great words of inspiration to
them. The piece of paper had these words on it….
“You are standing on my oxygen tube…fool…”
So I am not going to be the priest tonight… instead I will tell u
simple experiences of my life’s journey, with simpler words… which may
not leave you inspired…. but will help u survive this life. And if you
can do that… survive… happiness… creativity and success will follow on
its own… or maybe not but u will have to live this life nevertheless.
Only I hope my words will give u enough insight so that u can tell the
world… hey guys you are standing on my oxygen tube… move over and let me
breathe.
Journeys can be defined by age and time or even by destinations, as
most often they are. But I feel it is hard for me to tell the story of
my life in those terms because the concept of time has always eluded me.
The day my father died seemed longer than my entire childhood.
The day I felt my first success seemed fleeting, hour-long, not long
enough perhaps. I wondered where it went.
Even the cycle of time confounds me. I work the dark until sunrise on
most days and fall asleep as the world awakens to light. My friends
call me an owl… I like to think of myself as Bat… Batman… the prince of
darkness.
Age is not my forte either, I still cannot fix my own — am I 45 or
15?… if I could… would I be romancing girls one third my age who
normally would call me “uncle”.
I had so much fun collecting the action figures of my last film
(called ra.one) that none of the critical reviews tanking it mattered to
me.
As for my destination, I don’t think I ever knew one. I walk, I run,
in the direction of my dreams. Things change along the way, people
change, I change, the world changes, even my dreams change. I don’t have
a place to arrive, I just keep doing what I know how to do the best
that I can do it. I’ll probably end up a deluded geriatric in a
wheelchair wearing a cape and tights, imagining my own flight out of
this world, but of course with a young girl in my arms.
So I’ll tell you the story of me but I’ll tell it in my own way. In
the language of my perceptions, in the things I think matter beyond fame
and success and the dyeing of my hair. I have understood that the
measure of my life lies in the expanse of my heart’s experience and
nothing else matters, if u take anything out of it good… otherwise I can
put on music and dance to my last big hit song… have a drink… and try
and practice my kissing in the cold of Yale one more time.
However I look at it, in its
eventual analysis, my life has centered around my creativity. I have
assimilated the world through creative expression and in return the
world has experienced me.
I have grown to understand that on one hand the world will always
uphold creativity as the most honest feeling possible.
On the other hand the portents of fame (the glitz, the glamour, the
wealth) that arise from this very recognition of creativity will always
be questioned.
Why do we do that…? Because sometimes it allows us to feel better
than the creator and sometimes, it fills a void within us that comes
about by being in awe of his creation. Either way, it enables us to
quantify his engagement with the world around him.
I am an act; my life is a testament to this duality.
George Burns said that acting is all about honesty… if you can fake
that, you’ve got it made.
He couldn’t have defined it better. Honest and fake… yes that’s what I
feel as a creative person all the time.
Let me tell you my schizophrenia.
Creative expression comes from the deepest experience of the artist
himself. A good artist cannot be separate from his creation. Good art is
honest art. A man may be an artist, a writer, a sculptor, an actor or a
totem pole carver… whatever he is, if what he creates is true to him
self, it becomes a vivid testimonial to human creativity. If it lacks
honesty, its entire premise is a waste.
At the same time, and quite paradoxically, a man becomes distinct
from his creation from the moment it is placed in the public domain. It
no longer even belongs to him.
So it comes from your gut…and it is put out there for others to
accept it or throw it in the gutter.
Many a nights I have gone back home after receiving an award… pumped
up and all happy… just to read that what I really deserved was the
golden banana for worst actor of the year…
I become heartbroken, angry and completely convinced that bananas and
critics, both should have their skins peeled and fed to the monkeys.
I momentarily lose my ability to give and close up. And here’s where
the trick is — when you are in this place of despair, where the world is
staring you down into yourself. There’s only one thing you can do to
survive — hang on to who you are inside. The world will be unkind to
you, it will not be able to see you. You must learn at such times, to be
able to see yourself.
Life as a creative person is like being on a tight rope. I begin to
lose myself, in my own melodrama. It’s frustrating that I find myself
living up to other people’s interpretation of what I ought to be.
And when faced with dissent or unappreciation, I start losing my love
affair with my audience. It becomes a tight balance act… to keep doing
what I do best… and not be bothered by the reactions of people I do it
for, in the first place.
I dance harder and cartwheel longer and pirouette on my rope.
Stretched, taut, beneath my feet.
And I try not to slip… I can slide but never fall off… all this while
I have a smile on my face and signing autographs.
All I am is a funambulist… trying to balance my action and exterior
reaction to my naked show of who I am inside.
I start to feel like a street artist who feels his audience is just a
bunch of pausing passersby applauding out of a mixture of curiosity…
pity or even disregard.
Yet when I am playing this real life illusion out, more often than
not, my honest self is sitting in the audience, applauding my
performance while laughing heartily at my own stupidity.
So my friends (kids?), learn to laugh at yourselves too. Never become
cynical about yourself and your life. Becoming cynical about your life
is the single most destructive thing you can do to it.
For you have to remember….
Creativity is your gift to the world. It was never meant to be barter
for anything, not even appreciation. You have to dig deep, I do it
while drinking vodka after vodka… listening to self pitying, loser
songs… you should find a less destructive way… however you do it… but
you have to believe… that you create only because this is the biggest
gift you have to give to your world. Maybe that’s we even say God is a
creator.
It’s not about the cars or houses…it never was… those are
peripherals. They never come about because of your talent or your
creative outpourings… they come out of a business that people around you
do. Those people are in the business of barter — not you. Yours is the
business of giving and learning. Your work of art may never be complete
in your lifetime. Your fulfillment will always lie in your creative
expression not in its products.
So look beyond the brickbats… the critics and know within you that
you always have a choice between barter and creation. Life as a creator
will always be a tight rope. So…
- Do not try to feed your stomach with creativity, it is food for your
soul, not your stomach.
- Do not be afraid to defy conventions.
- Do not be afraid to destroy systems that kill art and your souls.
- Do not be afraid to be hungry.
- Do not be afraid to walk alone if necessary. Because on a tightrope
we all walk alone. Remember….if you are a creator you are a funambulist
and not very many people know that word…let alone be it.
Just as my life has centered around creativity, like every fellow
human being’s, it has also centered around the wish to find happiness.
Your age is the age when we most confuse happiness with gratification so
I will say quite plainly: if you are smart, if you want to survive
life’s relentless onslaught of challenges, you will sooner or later
understand that the things that made you happy ten years ago will end up
being the ones that make you happy when you hit the geriatric superhero
stage. Kids…start collecting your action figures, now!
I have everything I could have aspired for at your age, I have
success, I have fame, I have wealth and I have three playstations… one
for the house… one for shootings and one just because I can have it. But
none of these have any consequence to my happiness, the only thing that
does is the love of my children.
You don’t have children (I hope), but you have parents, you have
people you love and nothing in this world of everything’s, means more
than that.
Happiness, in other words, lies in the things you will never be able
to count.
To me, it is no more than cuddling up to my kids and watching I Carly
or the Family Guy. Well most of the time anyway, the other day my son
and I stumbled upon the Kamasutra on the net and I can tell you that
experience was not very happy. He’s 14 and he knew more about it than I
did.
I want you to understand this business of happiness well because I
know at one level, all parents are the actually the same… some look
sterner… some are less fun, some are embarrassingly weird but for each
parent the bottom and the top line of their lives is this- you kids are
their greatest source of happiness.
Parents want nothing in return… just that you respect that feeling…
that’s all.
Take my own children. I believe that girls really are from planet
Venus….my girl comes from a place of …gentleness…caring…love..
Intelligence and all things beautiful.
My boy comes from ‘I am too good to be your kid’ planet. Guys are
obnoxious… I am not being sexist but that’s the truth.
I was in London shooting and missing my kids. Being from the boring
school of people who send writings to their kids in the hope of making
them better human beings, I sent my daughter this verse from a poem by
e.e.cummings:
i do not know what it is about you that
closes and opens;
only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses,
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands
I instantly received this text message in return… I love it papa. It
is beautiful. I am going to write it in my secret diary with the secret
lock and keep it in my secret hiding place, under the Katy Perry and
Lady gaga poster. I love you and miss you. I am too excited…watching
Hunger
Games tonight.
Feeling bad that I hadn’t texted something meaningful to my darling
son I sent him something I had read too….
How are you my son I wrote….I miss you. Do you know…a boy is
someone that a mother loves the most. Little girls hate him. He is truth
with dirt on its face…beauty with a cut on its finger…wisdom with smell
in its hair…and hope of the future with a frog in its pocket. I love
you….
He replied back with one letter of the alphabet. One measly Y …to my
emotional fatherly outpourings. That and an emoticon. I wanted to fly to
Mumbai and hang him upside down till he looked liked a silly red faced
emoticon himself.
But I didn’t…instead I just smiled.
Both replies made me feel love for my kids. Whatever they do…as long
as they are happy it makes me happy.
So I speak to you as a parent of two very weird kids…. Whatever you
do…whichever mistake you make…however you react to them….your parents
are your best friends.
They might be boring…silly or stern at times. Maybe some of you are
embarrassed of yours, I know my kids are of me… but if ever any of you
are in trouble… of any kind… the best friends you can always trust to
watch your backs are your parents. They will always come good.
I lost my parents very early in my life… and I miss them dearly. So
all of you who still have yours… don’t listen to them… fool them if you
must… a bit of lying is also welcome… but make sure you cherish what you
have because when you don’t have them… like me… you really miss someone
to be rude to… someone to you can take for granted… someone to say and
do whatever you wish with… you miss the comfort of being loved
unconditionally. I call parents unconditional and forgiving punching
bags…who feel happiest when they get bashed up by their kids.
If you want to survive life, its best to begin to respect the gift of
love right now.
As children, your first teachers of this acceptance are your parents.
If you are unable to accept the love they give you, in whatever form it
arrives (even if it is a tight slap across your face), then when you
become a parent, you will end up having to learn this lesson somewhat
more harshly from teachers you give birth to… and learning Kamasutra
from my son is a not a great idea u would agree. Incidentally he studies
in a school that Isha’s mom runs in India….I have to say ma’m your
syllabus is quite different from the one I had when I was in school.
Whether I like it or not, my life has also been in constant play with
what the world calls “Success”.
Success is a wonderful thing, but it tends not to be the sort of
experience that we learn from. We enjoy it; perhaps we even deserve it.
But we don’t acquire wisdom from it. And maybe that’s why it cannot be
passed on either…me being successful does not mean my children will also
be so…how much ever I teach them what I did in my life and even if they
follow it to the letter.
So I feel that talking about how to become successful is a waste of
time…instead let me tell you very honestly…whatever happened to me
happened because I have always been terrified of failure. I don’t want
as much to succeed as much as I don’t want to fail. I come from a very
normal lower middle class family. I saw a lot of failure. My father was a
beautiful man and the most successful failure in the world. My mother
also failed to stay with me long enough for her to see me become a movie
star. We were quite poor actually and let me tell you…poverty is not an
ennobling experience at all. Poverty entails fear and stress and
sometimes depression. I watched my parents go through this several
times.
At an early age after my parents died… I equated poverty with
failure. I just didn’t want to be poor. So when I got a chance to act in
films it wasn’t out of any creative desire that I did so… it was purely
out of the fear of failure and poverty. Most of the films I signed were
discards of better known actors and the producers could not find anyone
else to do them. I did them all to make sure that I was working to
avoid unemployment. The timing or something was right, and that made
them happen. I became a big star… which means sometimes our success is
not the direct result of our actions… Success just happens. Really. It
is accidental and we take credit for it… I know I have done this even
out of embarrassment sometimes.
So I believe the true path to success is through the fear of failure.
If you aren’t scared enough of failing, you are unlikely to succeed.
It’s not pleasant to fail, its tough. All of us experience it. You will
too if you haven’t already. Use it to succeed.
Here’s how I have done so:
- Firstly, it’s not the absence of failure that makes you a success…it
is your response to failure that actually helps to buffer the reverses
that you experience. I personally have one response to failure…
pragmatism… a recognition and belief that if one approach does not
work…then the other will or might.
- Failure also gives me an incentive to greater exertion… harder
work…which invariably leads to later success in most cases.
- Repeated failure has taught me to stop pretending I am someone else.
Its given me the clarity to stick to the things that really matter to
me instead of distracting me from my core…
- Failure also gets you to find…who your real friends are. The true
strength of your relationships only gets tested in the face of strong
adversity.
- Overcoming some of my failures has made me discover that I have a
strong will…and more discipline than I suspected. It has helped me have
confidence in my ability to survive.
- Failure is an amazing teacher…There is a well-known story of a bank
president who was asked the secret of his success. “right decisions,” he
replied. “how do you get to know how to make right decisions?” came the
follow-up question. “experience,” was the answer. “well, how do you get
experience?” asked his interrogator. “wrong decisions,” he replied.
- You have to know and learn that life is a not just a check list of
acquisitions, attainments and fulfillments, your qualifications and CVs
don’t really matter. Instead life is difficult and complicated… and
beyond anyone’s control. The humility to know this will help you survive
its vicissitudes.
- But I don’t want to sound dark. My hope for all of you is that you
retain a lifelong love of learning, that you never cease to dream
exciting and inspiring dreams, and when you fail, you fail well enough
to succeed the next time. Don’t be afraid of being afraid, be afraid of
not facing your fears and failures.In the end I will read out a text
message I got today from my kidPapa…Chuck Norris has trained his dog to
pick up its own poop…because Chuck Norris will not take st from
anyone….So remember you are fortunate enough to be a funambulist….who
has an amazing set of punching bags, cherish them… and failure is your
fiendish friend… keep him close… and don’t take no st from anybody.Bless
you all and thanks for listening.”
