Roots

How important is it that you are truly who you are? I’ve been meeting with so many people who do exactly what they are supposed to do, irrespective of what they really want. Socialites who pretend to be everything they aren’t, people (including myself) lying to fit into various things- from conversations to jobs and those who have gone so deep that they can’t even realize who they are.

I met a lovely lady the other day, Shailaja Tahiliani, Tarun Tahiliani’s wife and was completely bowled over by her. At the launch of his first store in Hyderabad, the place looked like a war zone. With models hurrying around, the store manager’s fussing around and people generally acting important. I was rushing against a deadline and when I saw Tarun speak to her, I walked up to her, told her that I needed to get some work done and asked her if she works with the designer… She smiled, told me that she was his wife and told the PR to help me out. Later I heard her speak to half a dozen journalists who were amazed that she came from Guntur and spoke better Telugu than most of us.(believe me when I say half people I meet pretend that they cant speak their mother tongue, Telugu, as it isn’t cool enough)

All through the day, I was thinking about what keeps us away from doing things that we really want to, like not speaking a language as we are afraid as to how others might judge us, pretending to be cool as we are insecure in our own skins and wanting to belong in places which were never meant for us. Puzzlingly, Shailaja might or might not have succumbed to the pressure (I mean in all probability she married a gay designer) but the way she spoke and carried herself showed that she was at ease and that was what she was supposed to be doing. For some reason, all I’ve been thinking about for the last few days is whether I’m being true to what I’m doing and hopefully the answer will be a little merciful…