Be the Charming Sun - Not the Twinkling Star!!

 When I was a child, I used to love being popular. In those early days, my memory is that of my mom, making me join competitions. She used to do a lot of hard work. I used just mug up words & show the expressions my mom used to teach me! But my mom would run around & arrange for my costumes, research for dialogues in those days, when, leave alone google, Internet & why?? Computer was unheard off. If you needed some popular dialogues, you would have to go & get some cassettes. You would have to go to library to look up archives for dialogues. You could not copy them or take pics on your mobile, you will have to write them down in a piece of paper & carry it home. I never knew all these works that go behind a simple fancy dress competition. I used to go up on stage, well made up, with the make up my mom used to put on me (God knows how she was a pro right from the beginning!) with those costumes, which were hand-stitched by her. Recite those dialogues, along with those expressions, that were drilled into me, by the same mom, after so many practices. Those practices that would take place in between coaching my brother & me for our academics, in between her cooking schedule & her other activities, in between taking care of the things my dad would need!! The funny thing would be, I would win the prize. In fact, there were instances when my school got the “champion school” award, as I won the first place. All the credit would go to me! People would crowd around me & my mom & tell my mom “Your daughter is a genius! Look at her talent!!” My mom would feel so proud! & I would lap up all the attention! I was a star (Oh - only according to me)!!!

This word “Star” is so glamorous isn’t it! Look at Aishwarya Rai, Amitabh Bacchhan, Rajni Kanth, how nice it would be to them, atleast for a day isn’t it! Let alone be them, even meeting them is such a great achievement in our life for many of us isn’t it! But do we realise, that stardom usually comes with so many drawbacks??? First of all, these “Stars” can never be a normal human being. They are always kept at a pedestal! They are always followed & what they do becomes the gospel for many! & 1 small mistake they do – Something we, the common man feel it as a “Mistake”, whether they do it or not, we presume & judge them as a criminal. We boycott them, burn their effigies, pelt stone on their houses, even on them. Harm, not only them, but their family members & even their staff. These days, I see this happening on social media the most. It is the social media users that decide whether a person is a criminal or not, a person is worth living their life or not. I recently saw a hashtag that was trending the most in twitter. “#RIPRAJDEEP”. For a moment I thought this guy really died. But later realized, this guy is completely alive, however, this hashtag was used to put this person down. Hey, I am no fan of Rajdeep. But still, “RIPRAJDEEP” is a little too much for a person who is alive, even if he deserves it or not!

Thank God I never became a star that I thought I was! I am happy that I have woken up from my childhood “Stardom” long back, & working on being a person who is more attuned to the process than the result! Working on being more knowledgeable than showing off my knowledge. Working on being a loving person than a loved person! Being a charming Sun rather than a Twinkling star!!!!!