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."