190: The
rise and rise of the loser
Almost
two years to this date, 29th of November 2010 to be precise, I described one
Pankaj Dubey in Monday Musings 103 - an unusual story of an extremely gifted
"middle class boy in the small town of a developing country" (his
words) who failed so gloriously academically but still found his feet chasing
his dreams. This is a sequel to that story. (strongly recommend that you read
that before you move ahead -http://mondaymusingsbyguru.blogspot.in/2010/11/103-monday-musings-story-of-unusual.html).
Pankaj
was abused by academics in his early years and more particularly by maths. In
his own words he is a 'merchant of imagination and not a prisoner of knowledge'.
His life took him from the hinterlands of Jharkhand to BBC, film festivals and
some serious work in empathy building in slum children. I had ended by saying
that he has now shifted his base to Mumbai to dabble in film writing and that
one must keep watching this name because "this part of the story is still
untold". I was not wrong.
In the
last 2 years Pankaj has done script supervision for the movie 'Ghanchakkar', an
under-production feature called 'Chauranga', but most importantly next month
will see the launch of his maiden book called 'What a Loser' with Penguin
India, also simultaneously in Hindi called "Loser kahin ka". Pankaj
has written in both the languages-something that yet again indicates how
prolific his talent is.
The last
blog on this subject was an ode to what sheer talent, imagination and
creativity could do. It was also to shatter the myth of academic success and
how underprepared is the current school education to predict the future success
of its produce. This blog is to talk about the rise and rise of the tribe of
losers.
Success
is so over-rated and I have a feeling it would also be very boring.
Statistically more people fail more number of times than those who succeed.
Even the best fail a lot more than they care to admit. Success is like nicotine
- each time you need a stronger dose to give you the same high. After a while
your nerves are jaded and your soul is tired, chasing the mirage of success.
You cannot rest because by now you are scared of losing out. The popular culture
is desperately looking for the hero of the day - only to be forgotten tomorrow
because someone else has claimed the airwaves. Yet the chase continues because
the popular culture celebrates the hero. The rest are condemned to live the
life of anonymity - the loser.
The loser
never claimed his space. But not anymore. The loser is the underdog who must
now come from behind despite his feeble chances of winning. If only the top of
the pyramid must get all, then such a pyramid must be damned. This is not a
socialistic utopia which justifies mediocrity, but an appeal for diversity.
There can more than one pyramid - and the loser of one can be the winner of the
next.
'What a
loser' by Pankaj Dubey must be bought, read and re-read - in that order, as a
celebration of ordinariness. It must be held dear by all those who did not top their
class ever but are special nevertheless. It is not an apology but a
celebration. I have a feeling being a loser will become fashionable with this
book. There cannot be shame in being ordinary or not being the
first.
Well done
Pankaj! I am so looking forward to both the books.
Guru
for more on this go to - http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/en/content/what-loser
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