Check out this facebook conversation:
This is so typical!
– Can’t we appreciate someone who may have more than 1 kind of talent?!
In India, if I am a businessman, then is that the only talent, interest, hobby, passion, desire, commitment I ‘can’ have?
So, can’t I be a poet or a haiku writer or a sculptor?
If I am one and unfortunately try and display my talent (which incidentally may be quite amateur and poor), then will I be ‘suspect’ of faking my talent??!!!
Examples that immediately came to my mind:
– Arun Tadanki – a good friend and the MD of Yahoo India & SEA is also a well recognized DJ.
– Bal Thackeray is an accomplished well cartoonist.
– John Travolta flies fighter jets.
– Oracle’s CEO – Larry Ellison is a competitive sailor. His team has won the America’s Cup four times!! (The world’s largest sailing event)
– Paul Newman is one the world’s leading racing drivers..
So, are these people fake?!
Why do we have this mentality?
– Because as kids we don’t have deep hobbies. All we are supposed to is ‘study’ and get a job.
– We behave as per social norms. It’s ‘not right’ to be different. Papa will scold us.
– We should not do stuff that is not related to us. What will my boss say?
I am really pissed off.
It’s time Indians woke up to the fact that we are more than just one person and the more hobbies and interests you have, the better you will turn out to be.
Can you please please give examples of yourself and others you may know who have more that just a 1-sided personality?????
******
Siddhesh Joglekar
Alok, Amazing post, and fully agree with this…. Being unidimensional is almost assumed in India sadly 😐
Narendra Singh
How does one guy’s mentality make you think that its a habit of all Indians?
Abhik Prasad
Everybody has multiple sides to their personality..however, most people are afraid to explore their other sides lest they get sidetracked from their ‘career path’…
Ashutosh Kumar
Alok is bang-on on the fact that its tough for most to digest that a person can be so superbly multi-talented. But its a fact- Genius is not confined to one field, a genius goes down to the depth of every field he can lay his hands upon. In fact, the entrepreneurs are one of the most emotional among a society. Due to this extreme emotion , they can stay put when eveything has gone haywire; and this extreme emotion causes perfectly formed outbursts, which result in literary creations like Alok does.
Once a person breaks the shackles that he belongs to “X” or “Y” domain, he can master whatever he wants to. Lets stop being prisoner of our devices.
Ananya Pani
I would agree to what Abhik has mentioned most Indians are afraid of being side tracked due to the social pressure, commitment of family.
As a minimum we can at least start encouraging our next generation to develop hobbies and passion apart from studies, we can let them choose what they want to be and try to keep the pressure minimum on them.
I am an entrepreneur in GRC domain, i have a strong affinity for Veda and Sanskrit, i absolutely enjoy pursuing those hobbies and feel that is my calling sometimes, would love to do it full time some day.
That’s perfectly normal and developing multiple hobbies actually help you relax and focus better.
Nishant Agrawal
This brings back so many hurtful memories. I had a passion for cooking – Greek stuff, French, Arabian … I’d read recipes off the net and try them out. The embarrassment my parents subjected me to made me give it up once and forever.
I have always been a voracious reader – that didn’t trouble anyone. But then I started reading books on philosophy, physics, history and psychology. Relatives who saw these books weren’t pleased; I was always the odd one out in school. Parents were worried.
… so on
I read this somewhere, “Yesterday, I was clever, so I tried to change the world. Today, I am wise, so I am changing myself.” Let not the shadows creep out of the dark.
Alok,
I can’t say I fully agree with your inference. Sid’s comment reads more like sarcasm that doubt. But I like the topic.
asha chaudhry
siddharth,
allow me to refresh your memory on this particular post and its comments! [check may 6]
btw, there is ONLY ONE RODINHOOD!
cheers!
Mithun E
World would be a better place if we stop judging each other and restrain our-self to introspection!!!
asha chaudhry
sid,
let me spell it out for u!!!!
look at aditi’s comment – “that is so rodinhood” means that is something only rodinhood would write! who is rodinhood??????!!!!!!!!!!!! alok rodinhood kejriwal. no one else!
:))))))))))))))
Anamika Joshi
Ok….this one relates with me quite well…. The “obedient girl” image established during my graduation as well as post-graduation days isn’t doing any good to me…i can’t use certain words…i can’t say certain things…. i can’t laugh at certain stuffs….and if i do any of these, i get stares….doubtful ones…
Wanted to share a recent incident…. Currently I have a Facebook Cover Pic saying “Replace ‘What If’ with ‘Hell YEAH’ “..
When i showed this to one of my friend (since i had also done the design of the cover pic), he looked for few seconds and responded.. “It is not bad..i mean it’s good…but what’s written is not expected from you”…. For the readers let me put it this way, “I have never used the word “HELL” or “YEAH” in general talking or in writing”…so when my cover pic had these words, this was the feedback…i am sure rest of my friends whom i have not yet asked for a feedback, might have already thought this in their heads…
The crux is i am trying to change ‘that’ image and making people accept that i can be what i want to be… 🙂 SO i haven’t yet changed the cover 😉
Anirudh B Balotiaa
It pisses me off too Alok and I am sure to a lot of people, but unfortunately a lot of us keep doing it unconsciously. The problem I see is that we have been brought up and/or influenced in such a way that being unconventional is not conventional here.
By which I don’t mean that you being good with words/poetry doesn’t sync with you being a businessman! On the contrary we all have our hidden hobbies and the more we bring it out and pursue, we will excel more in our core areas.
You share something motivating/inspiring/quote and immediately people will say “gyan baat raha hai”…things like this are aplenty!
Sad! 🙁
Whenever I have kids I am sure I will not raise them in this fashion! Take things as it comes, why be judgmental about it!
Sudhakar adapa
I think its part of our pysche not to accept brilliance in multiple domains,as we strongly believe excellence in a particular field needs lot of practice and we forget natural flair,so we tend to have presumption that people can only be unidimentional.
L
Anirudh B Balotiaa
With due respect Sudhakar, this is nothing but crap specially from our pysche point of view.
Whether one can be multidimensional is an analysis at a secondary level, the thing is and I may be wrong is that we pull people down because he/she is doing something which we want to and still cant do!
People think if its right and relevant for them, its for everyone! So so so WRONG!
Himanshu Mody
My Companies one of the director and CTO, Yash Mody at Tekno Point is a 2nd degree blackbelt in Combat Arts and recently completed his PhD in Alternative medicine and is now also authoring a book. All his interests Nothing to do with work or career.
Manoj Jons
There are 2 kinds of people – 1. Those who has got 1 talent and 2. Those who have many talents. The ‘jack of all, master of none’ are the 1st category trying to become like the second!
Alok, I fully agree with you because I’ve experienced this personally 🙂 I was thinking about the same subject on my trip to Australia last week doing live sound engineering at 6 main cities for my concert band, after quitting being the CTO of a company at Infopark Kochi, and now planning to bootstrap a new software venture and also moonlight on music trainings & audio engineering.