Have you ever realized that if you’re really passionate about doing something, always imagining how would you feel when you actually do it, getting goose bumps so many times and when that moment comes for which you dreamt since childhood, those goose bumps vanish, you feel normal! You’re curious why the hell are you not having goose fleshes, why aren’t you sighing, why the heck there is continuous rush of blood in your heart, why? You speak to yourself – dude, it has actually happened, your ages long dream has come true, feel it, feel on heaven, but you just can’t, you just have a happy feeling but that’s it. But then you realize everything happens for good, had these things happened at that real moment, you would not have been able to perform then. Also, had those dreams and goose bumps not happened in dreams, you would have never reached the real moment ever, so just flow with the goodness of nature, instinctive behavior is so damn flawless…

When I was a kid, every year I used to fill Filmfare nomination forms, mail them and enjoy watching 70-80% of my nominations become winners! I used to watch every Filmfare event, never miss any film related interview on TV or newspaper etc. I used to study alone in my room for hours at a stretch and several days, sometimes for over 4hours I used to walk to and fro and give Filmfare acceptance speeches primarily as an Actor or Director! Did that make me plan a career in films? No way, I didn’t even remotely think of that. Why?

Let me tell you a story – there was a baby elephant whose leg was chained with iron. He tried to break it several times, for several days, may be months but finally realized that this is impossible. Cut to…few years henceforth when the elephant became big enough to even break iron chains, he was permanently tied to a simple rope and the elephant till death didn’t even “try” breaking it! No, I wasn’t trained to think that something is impossible, I was always made to believe in possibilities, a belief put deep into my subconscious that everything is possible by my parents. However, somehow the area in which I applied this belief was limited and the problem was that neither did I nor did anybody else ever talk about “everything is possible” belief in any area other than studies or sports! The maximum out-of-the-box thinking would be to be open to look for career in arts rather than science! How strange but howsoever strongly you believe that everything is possible, you do not include everything in ‘everything’, do you?

Anyways, thankfully when I came to IIT, learnt to live alone, take decisions alone, then the area of ‘everything’ increased! And when I started working, then I realized that film acting is everything for me, and it’s better to die trying to become one than to die everyday 9-9 :)). Have always heard faith can move mountains but seriously can see the mountain moving inch by inch…inch by inch it’s synch, yard by yard it’s hard! And ya, just becoming a film actor is not my dream, it’s just a starting point, reaching the top strata’s ‘virgin’ level as a film actor is the dream and as I said everything is possible [wink wink]! Try applying this magic phrase in your life and remember you can become what you think you can (not necessarily ‘will’) but you ‘will’ never become what you don’t even think you can! So believe and begin, cheers!
(My friend Manav always says – “Pehle daaru peena shuru kar saale, phir ‘cheers’ bolna…” ha ha ha)