“Make a clown of yourself. It is ok to be laughed at. Sometimes, making a fool yourself is the best way to liberate yourself from fear,” said actor Anupam Kher. In the city to promote his book The best thing about you is You , Anupam Kher narrated instances from his life where he learnt to conquer his fear and failures.
After going through ups and downs for over nine years and being a little over ambitious about starting his own production company, Anupam didn't see how his life was going. Added to the misery of unexpected turns, Anupam also discovered one fine day that he had something called facial palsy, “A better term for facial paralysis. I was shocked and didn't know what was to be done. My doctor advised bed rest for two months but I was shooting for Hum Apke Hain Kaun . Instead of hiding from the world I decided to confront my fear. I went up to Yash Chopra and told him my problem,” says Anupam.
This was the time when he was also writing his play Kuch bhi ho sakta hai . “The play was nothing but a string of my failures. The audience was in splits and lapped it up. That made me sure that failures can be given a positive turn,” says the actor.
Talking about his book, he says he used examples from his own life to subtly motivate readers by providing a handy guide to discovering your real self.
He says “I feel the best way to counter negativity that exists in the world is by acquiring a positive outlook. The moment we stop living and thinking about being judged we will feel liberated.” He says the first day he learnt to celebrate failure was when his father asked him to bunk school and asked him to choose a place where he can treat him. “To my surprise he took me to Alpha, the place where we loved to go. A mutton samosa and a pineapple pastry was our usual order, but dad said I can order whatever I wanted to. After eating all that I wanted, my dad said, ‘do you know why we came here?' With a puzzled look I said ‘no', his reply was, ‘You have failed and you will have to repeat your class. I don't want you to think this failure is the end of the world.”
This book, which contains the author's views on a wide variety of topics — the anger syndrome, the phenomenon of change, thought control, dealing with relationships, conquering stress, getting rid of fears, coming to terms with failure, realising the power within oneself, coping with loss and death and much more — also talks about the need to let go of things to make life easy.
Making his point with wit
Anupam Kher unveiled his book at a gathering of the FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) in the city. While addressing the packed ballroom at Taj Krishna, Kher revealed how he had contemplated on what he should wear to avoid looking ‘unfit.' He said he first thought about sucking in his stomach to hide his paunch, then he realised it isn't possible to do that and be comfortable for over an hour. Hearing this, the ladies were in splits and Anupam was pleased as he knew he had their attention. He took a dig at FB users and said, “being happy on FB seems to be a full-fledged affair. It is important to be genuinely happy and not for the world.” His take on deciding how you want to lead your life had the ladies sit up and listen to him. The natural actor that he is, he enacted a few scenes from his wife Kirron's daily chores — ‘of which one was to be upset with her domestic help forever'. He did a quick ‘describe yourself in one word' with the guests as he smartly spoke of what to expect in his book and everyone loved it.
