AAJ MAIN HOON JAHAN KAL KOI AUR THA

 



“Try not to become a man of success;

rather become a man of value.”

Albert Einstein

 

When I was a teenager, Rajesh Khanna was the Super Star. If fame, insane fanfare and box-office collection were the yardsticks to measure a film-star’s success, then, one had to stop at Rajesh Khanna… He had achieved all of these and was riding on the crest of success-wave…

But, then, a wave is just a wave. More than anyone else, Rajesh Khanna knew, that the wave he was riding on would, soon, crash… Fame and fanfare would, soon, fade away… Just like the stars in the sky did. Apparently, this realization – that success was transient – prompted him to keep repeating, with the desired effect, his own dialogue from the film ‘Daag’ (Brilliantly penned by Sahir Ludianvi)…

“Izzaten, shohraten, chahaten, ulfaten…

koi bhi cheez duniya mein rahti nahin;

aaj main hoon jahan kal koi aur tha

aaj main hoon jahan kal koi aur tha…

Ye bhi ek daur hai woh bhi ek daur tha.”





The beauty of  Sahir Ludianvi’s words is, that it applies to all spheres of life. Rajesh Khanna, the Super Star of the tinsel world, dominated a space where someone else did before him… and, someone else did after him! This is an important reality of life, which, even though we all know well, we go about our lives as if it is not applicable to us… We assume, that the crest of success-wave we are riding on is a permanent place to be…

The wave crashes, Sir… “Aaj main hoon jahan kal koi aur tha”…

And, Sir, jahan kal koi aur hoga!




Our pursuit of Success begins quite early in life. All of us want to grow more and more and more… Achieve more, accumulate more, become more famous and successful. This phenomenon is intrinsically inbuilt – like a pre-installed software…

My own pursuit began with it… and, I am sure, yours, too, did.

The more I reflect on this phenomenon, the more I get convinced, that we all have to cross this path in order to understand the transient nature of ‘Success’ that we pursue…

The crest is the best place to do it…

We learn to reinstall the ‘success software’… which, I think, is a good thing!

Let me go back to Rajesh Khanna’s another famous line. This one is from ‘Anand’:

“Ham sab toh rangmanch ki kathputliyan hai

jinki dor uparwale ki ungliyon main bandhi hai.”

Long before Anand said it, didn’t Shakespeare say it: “All the world’s a stage”?

 

GERALD D’CUNHA


Pic.: 1. Mike Dawson/fineartamerica.com 2. www.flickr.com

Video: ABP NEWS


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