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In 2008, India cinema saw a film under the famous Yashraj banner-“Rab Ne Banadi Jodi”. The film starred the Indian actor SRK as “Suri”, a simpleton working for a Public Sector Unit. Suri spoke little, dressed in dull formal clothes and sneakers. He was reserved to the extent of appearing socially awkward. Suri gets married to “Tani”, a beautiful, vibrant and extrovert girl under sudden, unavoidable and not preferred circumstances to the bride. But in spite of his non-flamboyant personality, Suri is deeply in love with Tani and wishes to woo her. And so he disguises himself as a strange loud character “Raj” ( apparently unrecognizable) , joins her dance classes to be her partner, dates her, woos her and eventually makes her fall in love with him.
So what was unique about this film? Not that it was predictable; certainly not the obvious plot. But definitely one significant feature of this film was the trademark Bollywood concept of “Disguise”. The protagonist “Suri” lives a double life. His alter Ego was “Raj”. The only visual difference between the two characters was a moustache and their choice of clothing. So Raj had no moustache, wore Jeans and florescent T-shirts, sported colored spikes and walked with a stupid gait. Raj was loud, ridiculous and wore anything and everything. Raj was everything which his real life personality-Suri was not.
Why would a person act so stupidly and differently when playing Raj from what he was in reality as Suri?
What stopped him from simple acts such as wearing Jeans and cracking stupid jokes in his life as Suri?
Why did he have to adopt an imaginary character to be what he wanted to be?
Because, pssst… Raj was incognito…!! He was a non-existent character. He had no past and no future. He had no relationships. He was a figment of fiction. Today he was Raj, a dancer; tomorrow, he could be Rahul a biker; day after tomorrow, Rohit, a Para-glider.
BUT Suri, was real!! Suri had a life, a job, relatives, a wife and an image. He needed to protect the image, the image that he had built for himself. Let us take a pause here.
Ask yourself, what image have you built for yourself? Does your image limit you? When I dream of who I want to be, I always draw lines of limitations. I start filtering out possibilities. And then come out with solutions within the limited space. But if YOU stick to the canvas provided, how will you ever build a picture larger than life; than the canvas in itself?
Let us conduct a mini-exercise. Imagine that you were alone. No relationships. No past education. No financial constraints. No nationality. No expectations from your educational qualifications. Imagine you could live in any country, work on any job, do anything. What would you choose?
Do you have an answer? Well, whatever you would have wanted to do then, however ridiculous, DO IT NOW, RIGHT HERE, TODAY.
Let me share my example. Why do I work in India? Because I was born here. I have my family here. Why do I work in Marketing? Because, I pursued an MBA and it feels justified to pursue a marketing job. Why did I do an MBA? Because I come from an academic family.
Had I come from a Business family, maybe they would have encouraged me to be an entrepreneur. The moment you come across this phrase “Had I”… stop and pause. You need to because the “Had I” never ends. Had I known I like arts, I could have studied journalism. Had I not studied engineering I would have worked in advertising. Had I been 20 years old, I would have taken up travelling or taken up a sales job. Had I……..Had I….Had I……
You see this phrase only pushes you back to your image. Suri’s image was to be simple and reserved. He needed a disguise to be loud and to wear Jeans. My image through childhood was academic, I probably need a disguise to break that and discover if I can be more. And if I break that, I can do everything I wish to- right here right now. So can YOU. Do what you heart and mind tells you to, do what YOU feel is the purpose of your life. And do it without judgment and without an image to live up to. Strangely when guided by purpose, constraints make way. But if guided by constraints purpose makes way.
Raj was creative and Suri was constrained. Raj was uninhibited. He had nothing to lose. So he tried something new, something wild and something crazy.
His lady love wanted to dance, and he knew nothing about dancing. But well, he figured out enough to stand in the race. Often, it is quite strange how many Suris out there harbor a Raj inside themselves. Are you living Suri’s life? Do you have a Raj within you? Set him free!!
Be the Raj of your life now. Do everything you always wanted to. What you want to do. Without Inhibition. Without Fear. Be ridiculous. Laugh loudly. Chew aloud in public. Wear funny sandals. Ask her out! And give speeches! WITHOUT Judgement. Without fear. Because remember, you are Incognito. No one knows you. You are just a character, playing a part. Unleash yourselves, today. Go Incognito.
