MAHESH BHATT

Mahesh Bhatt..."My teacher told me-No one is perfect...that is why along with pencils you need erasers."

 I did not like his brashness on whatever little I saw on T.V. and hence I was curious to see him in person in the Seminar presented by Q.F.K. ( Jatinder Pal Singh) on Growing conflicts in Families Causes Impacts Way Forward...

Well, out of all the dignitaries invited it was Mahesh who came in time.

He sat in the audience and took in the mellifluous Kirtan rendered by the school children.

 Every time he was asked to honour anyone with mementoes he did it with such a flourish, the recipient was all smiles by his benign embrace/ smile/ kind words.

Being the eminent film maker, writer that he is the audience flocked to him to capture him on their smart phones he smilingly obliged and posed happily.

And when he spoke he held us spellbound with his words.

A child of a single parent he painted a deeply emotional picture of his mother. He narrated many an anecdote and attributed his success to her. He was wild  he said, he did not follow convention… an anguish deep down of not having his father in his growing years  even though he was there. As he wandered around in the wilderness his Mother’s values that she often reiterated from time to time were like a lode stone. Like most of us he made his Ma sound the best Mother in the world!

He then went on to say he could be no role model for anyone as he is a rebel and non-conformist to the status quo by nature, largely due to his unconventional upbringing.

However he proved beyond doubt that he was indeed a family man when he endearingly spoke about his two daughters and a son. He also read out a foreword that he wrote in his son’s Book. He bemoaned the fact that he has not spent  much time with them.

In the end he invoked each and everyone saying you yourselves are assets to the human race. You are unique there is no one like you. It is the conflicts that give rise to the inner light. The great sages showed us the way by questioning the norms. Nanak Devji went to holy Mecca and said place my feet where there is no God! He went to Puri and refused to do the normal Arti because according to him the entire nature was partaking in doing Arti! He refused to wear the “jenau” the holy thread saying that it breaks. So? Everyone in this world suffers pain .”Nanak dukhiya saab sansar” Find solutions  make the stones in your life as stepping stones!

Merely by repeating the scriptures you cannot attain God. You are an asset of the human race “…insaan bano, Bhagvan nahi…” become human and not God!

When he finished there was silence as if willing him to continue on with his discourse…a man so human with all the human failings was before us illustrating one has to chalk out the course of their own life…do not wait for role models and that he certainly was not one!