"I want to be famous"

I attended an A R Rahman concert yesterday. The Oracle Arena in Oakland, California was arguably one of the best locations to host such a concert. A huge auditorium accommodating almost 5000 passionate Indians, fantastic sound system and of course, world class music from the man himself. The concert began with an awesome composition "Jage hain der tak hume... kuch der sone do" and the confluence of good music, great sound and an electrifying atmosphere was absolutely unparalleled. My joy knew no bounds and my heart was filled with countless emotions... of joy, of praise, of appreciation, of happiness and above all, of respect and admiration.

I am sure, you'd be surprised ...that amidst all this... the first thing that I wanted to do then was to write. No, it wasn't because I am great writer or want to be one... but because that was the only way, I thought, I could depict my state of mind :). Now that I have actually got down to writing about it, I realise, I am not good at it at all :-). Neways, I'll just continue...

Speaking in general, I have been attending all kinds of music concerts through out. Right from Hindustani classical in the Sawai Gandharv music festival to Daler Mehndi, Apache Indian, etc. I am also an ardent fan of Hindi movies and watch almost every well publicized Hindi movie.

Every time I see performances... either from the musicians in concerts or from actors/actresses in movies... I get inspired from it and feel that I should start working hard towards becoming a star myself :-). Trust me... very often, in a cinema hall, when the movie starts and the names of the artists are displayed, I wish that someday I will have my name on that screen too. I visualize that ... a theater packed with audience, the movie begins with some outstanding piece of music, everyone riveted to the screens and the name flashes 'Shrinand Javadekar'... maaaan... how I wish I see that light of that day!!

I have a passion even bigger than movies/music. Its cricket. There was a point in time when I could only think of a career somehow associated with cricket. From a player to administrator to media person to umpire/official, everything has crossed my mind.

Every time I see Sachin Tendulkar in full flow or an outstanding cover drive from Sourav Ganguly or an athletic piece of fielding from Jonty Rhodes or a toe-crunching yorker from Shoib Akhtar, I wonder how life would be if I were them. How awesome it would be to guide India to victory in a nail-biting India-vs-Pakistan World cup final and lift the "Man of the Match" award :-) ? I visualize that too ... two nations, almost at war, the biggest occasion one could get, the World cup final...situation pretty tense and I go out to bat, wickets falling around me, bowlers, fielders sledging me big-time, and yet I keep my cool, play a masterful innings and help India win. Its the presentation ceremony and host is announces the Man of the Match award... 'Shrinand Javadekar'... maaaan... how I wish I see that light of that day!!

I think we all land up living a one-dimensional life. And as the saying goes "The grass is greener on the other side of the fence" ... we all have admiration towards "Achievers" from other walks of life and we wish how good it would be to be them. This comes from a small hidden ambition that every single person has... "I want to be famous" :-). And everyone knowingly or unknowingly strives to achieve it.

The sad part is that it is very difficult to be very good at multiple things. It takes a lot of effort to be good at one itself and that leaves almost no resources to invest in others. But being young and enthusiastic about life, I keep trying to defy this 'almost-universal' truth. I have tried my hand at so many things, from playing the tabla, to playing cricket and other sports, to making a video, to writing articles/book (on cricket), to doing comentry, to dance/theater, to teaching C language ... the list goes on and on and on...!! All this for one quest ..."I want to be famous".