The Truth About Truth.

Woody Allen: “Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television”

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It’s usually something offbeat that gets you thinking. By thinking, I mean really thinking. Thinking about life, love, loss, gain, pursuit, happiness and its usually unholy tradeoff with money.

Recently I was writing an article on stand-up comedy for a magazine. I found that, the basic premise that comedians worked on was that they would bare themselves. They would tell the truth and not leave a single shred of it out.

Lenny Bruce said, “If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses”. Bruce had nothing against good ol JC’ – he just found a way a telling, what according to him, was the truth, i.e. the hypocrisy of religion.

I believe that all jokes made by even non professional comics, reflect what they really feel… If you meet someone who makes a joke about falling for you, then that’s probably true. Humour has always been the best way to say something without actually saying it. This is exactly what they teach in the 1st class of your comedy course. Speak about what you believe in, not about what you think others find funny.
The analogy here is – SPEAK YOUR MIND & THE REST SHALL FOLLOW.

Comedians were never afraid (as suggested by Chris Rock’s spoken word album Never Scared). They just went out there and said what ordinary people were too scared to say.

Maybe, just maybe, we all need to take a lesson from them.
Maybe, we all need the balls to say things that would usually blow our egos into pieces of shark bait.
What I’m trying to say is that if you want to become a hippy then go do that. If you want to write then do that. If you want to marry your landlady then propose.
If you disagree with your parents then take them out for dinner to a nice Italian joint, and then tell them.

A very good friend is getting more homicidal by the day because he is doing a course he absolutely hates. He wants to write, but then that would be swimming against the stream.

Another bloke earns 6 Lakh p.a. He wants to enter the social sector, but then that what would his neighbors say?

Another guy, and a girl are completely into each other. If only they’d stop tap-dancing around the issue and say something about it.

Besides, think back. How many times have you done something pander to the ‘neighbors’?
And how many times have you done something just because ‘It’s the bloody right thing to do”.
How many hours of your 24, feel “Just right”?
When was the last time you felt excited about what you are doing?

I agree that India’s GDP is almost at the 10% growth mark, but then abandoning everything that’s near to you, in order build that corporate career? Surely you have better imagination. (But if that’s what gives you your kicks then by all means do It.)

However, if you have that once in a blue moon conversation in which you say, “man, I really gotta get out of this shithole”, then you know that your allegiance lies elsewhere.

Life shouldn't be about, driving to work--driving back--and then sleeping. I think too many of us are stuck in the rut. In any case, even if you win the rat race, you are still a rat right?

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Don't get me wrong. This is not just about work. This is about enjoying life.
Speaking for myself, it took a visit to a certain seaside town to figure out that I want to travel, learn a new language, make music, write, be entrepreneurial. I haven't forgotten anything from that trip... And this is just an attempt to continue to remember all of that.

It's when you are not over-analyzing and dissecting what you are about to say before you actually say it, that you are being truthful. It may take a stand-up comedy act to realize, but better late than never.

So keep a tab about the jokes you make, the stories you tell in passing and what you said during that one perfect conversation you had - for they will tell you alot.

Life is too short to figure out what's right and what's wrong.
If it makes you smile, it's probably right.

Thus Robin Williams spake, “You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."

Shantaram

Shantaram, By Gregory David Roberts
Abacus - ISBN 0-349-11754-3 (UK Edition, Paperback)

“I was a revolutionary who lost his ideals in heroin, a philosopher who lost his integrity in crime and a poet who lost his soul in a maximum security prison...”

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I’ve never lived the life of a foreigner. Nor have I lived the life of an addict, or a slum dweller, or the mafia, or a doctor, or a….

In this autobiographical book, the author Gregory David Roberts, does that and much much more. In the year 1978, heroin addict, Roberts was sentenced to 19 years imprisonment in a maximum security jail in Australia. He escaped to New Zealand after making a daring daylight escape. After a brief period there, he arrived in Bombay on a false passport. This is where the story of Shantaram begins.

Roberts or Shantaram or Linbaba, as he is known is the reason why I loved the book so much. It’s heartening to read about a foreigner to takes to India from the very moment he steps foot in it; and this at time when we cant stop criticizing our country.

The book starts with Roberts forging a close friendship with his guide Prabhakar who lives in the slums. Through Prabhakar, he meets several interesting characters whose distinct personalities take you for a roller coaster ride throughout the book. There is Didier, who is almost never without his whiskey, and then there is Karla, the mysterious lady who never quite reveals what’s on her mind. In the words of Karla, “Happiness is a myth. It was invented to make us buy new things”

Roberts appreciates everything around him; the crowded slums, the 5 star hotels, the touts, the underground businesses, the mafia and so on. He starts to make his living by serving as a guide to visiting foreigners. At the same time he even lives in a slum. While the initial few days are hard for him, he soon adjusts. Just when you thought that a foreigner living in a Bombay slum was implausible enough, Shantaram goes and creates a clinic within the slum.

Society would have you believe that an escaped convict couldn’t piece together a nursery rhyme, let alone a tome of the magnitude of 940 pages. Roberts does that and more. His command over the words that make up Shantaram is masterful. His sentences stay with you long after you have passes the page.

For example when he advises Karla, “If you make your heart into a weapon, you always end up using it on yourself”. These and many other profound statements are bound to stay with you, the reader, long after you have finished reading the book.

Roberts even finds his was into the Bombay underworld. His musings with the don Khaderbhai make for superb reading. Khaderbhai shares his theory of how the universe works with Roberts, a discourse reserved for his most trusted aides. This fascinating portion of the story deals with his work as a loyal foot soldier in the currency changing, gold smuggling and fake passports business.

All throughout the book our protagonist is faced with choices. Should he stay with the girl he loves, or be loyal to the man who saved his life?
Should he help someone knowing fully well that it could get him killed?
Can he continue to live normally if his closest friend dies?
Perhaps the biggest virtue of the protagonist is his ability to learn from past happenings. Shantaram perennially searches for the truth. However, he finds fresh perspectives on it as he muses, “Truth is a bully we all pretend to like”.

You wonder to yourself, will Roberts ever stop risking life and limb.
It’s the promise of answers to these questions that spur the reader on through each of the 900+ pages. This book is a page turner.

I’ve never lived the life of a foreigner. Nor have I lived the life of an addict, or a slum dweller, or the mafia or a doctor. But while reading this book I’ve lived them all.

Roberts notices things about India, I fail to notice. While in the slum he understands that it’s all about ‘heart’. You think and do with your heart. Friendships are above all else and honor the cornerstone to life. He loves his friends to bits, and they love him back.

Read this book for inspiration. Read this book for a glimpse into India. Read this book for the literary masterpiece it is. My guess is that you will come out of it a new person.