By Our Staff Reporter
DEHRADUN, 26th October: It was not one of those staid, formal speeches that chief guests usually make. Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardee renowned actor Anupam Kher who was Chief Guest at The Asian School’s 25th Founder’s Day on Saturday, regaled his audience with an interactive talk on the importance of parents, teachers and country in our lives. Addressing the large gathering, the legendary actor joked that this was a serious function (since it was academic) and he was ‘scared’! From here on, he took the gathering of teachers, students, their siblings and family and friends on a memorable flight of imagination with anecdotes of his life from school-going to acting.
Asking the audiences to raise their hands if they had scored 50 or 70 per cent in their academics at any point of time, and while he saw raised hands, Anupam quipped that he never scored beyond 38 per cent in studies; nor was he good at sports and other activities. ”My sports teacher would say that even if I ran alone, I’d end up being the second!” Therefore, he added, he was the wrong choice for this dais! This drew spontaneous laughter from the guests and faculty.
Going down memory lane, he recounted the circumstances of his childhood in Shimla in the late 1950s. The sole bread-winner of the family was his father who worked as store-incharge of Forest department drawing a salary of Rs 90 per month. And theirs was a large family of grandparents, children- all couped up in one single room. There was never any dearth of joy though. Once he asked his grandfather how we could be happy being so poor. Pat came the answer that happiness was because of poverty! With a father who was busy with work from morning to night, there was no one to inspect the children’s studies. They had to fend for themselves unlike today’s children whose parents are hands-on working alongside with them. 
Anupam’s father was clueless about his son’s studies or progress. While in the ninth class he had to get his father’s signature on his progress report card. So he had no option but to go to his father with his 59th ranking in a class of 60. To his utter amazement his father reacted very lightly saying that if he had got a first rank, there would be constant pressure to keep that up and even a second rank would seem like a failure. But when one stands somewhere in the 59th rank, well there are lots of ranks ahead to aim for and improve oneself. This was the sort of courage the father instilled into the young mind, to take things in their stride and strive for better. Today’s generation, he commented, is full of fear of failure. ‘Failure is an event, never a person,’ he quoted his father’s words. 
He reminiscensced how two main fears- of poverty and failure were removed in one go- by Dadaji (grandfather) and father respectively. So, the elders in the family are the first teachers of life and living, he stated.
Coming to teachers, he said unlike teachers of today, teachers of those days believed in ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’ adage. They were ready to cane the student at the drop of a hat. Caning was inevitable part of schooling, so much so, a correct answer never got a compliment but a wrong one wouldn’t miss the cane. The teachers had their own sense of wry humour. For instance, one teacher had asked the class whether Asia is in Bharat or Bharat in Asia and tell the students to think well and answer. They had to toss and turn the question and finally arrive at an answer! Such unique teachers had shaped his personality and future, he stated.
Despite not being good in studies Anupam wanted to become something in life and one thing led to another. His school, primarily Hindi-medium, decided to stage an English drama-‘Merchant of Venice’ and offered him a role to play. Without practice, he obviously came up with so many errors in dialogue delivery that he was shunted to the role of reading out the charges. He sounded like a clerk in a court, he quipped. His eager parents who came to watch him acting were taken aback. But there was no undue running down. On the other hand, his father gave him a bouquet for showing courage and trying to enact a play. In life, says the actor, it is not school but family that nurtures you. And adds, that nobody is born actor. Acting involves lots of hard work.
Narrating their childhood joys, he recollects the family outing to Alfa Restuarant on Mall Road in Shimla once in 6 months-the four of them-father, mother, his brother and himself. The menu was fixed; samosa, pineapple pastry and expresso coffee. When he was in 11th grade, his father came to pick him up from school and they headed to this favourite food joint. It was out of the scheduled 6-month outing. Anupam wondered why he was getting the treat. After he had done with eating, his father cooly told him that he had gone to see the result of the Board exam and found his son had failed. This treat is for that. These amazing life lessons make you the person you are today, he said. The foundation is laid by the elders. Today parents and teachers put so much pressure on the children he commented.
One fine day, he decided that he wanted to be an actor. He was just 19. It wasn’t easy at all. Acting meant Bombay and he was in Shimla! His friend gave him an application form to get enrolled into acting school in Chandigarh. He robbed Rs 100 from the money his mother saved in her Puja box to go to Chandigarh. The police came on right on his heels. Those days 100 was worth a police FIR. Mother was agitated but he assured her he would return her money when he gets his stipend. Father came next and before he tendered his apologies, announced that he was selected by the Chandigarh acting school. “I topped with gold medal. And then went to other acting institutions and finally reached Bombay,” he states. By then he had no hair on his head. “There are two types of men -baldies and future baldies,” his statement drew a round of laughter and applause.
Despite all training in acting, Bombay and movies was not a cakewalk. He found himself sleeping on Bandra platform and felt very humiliated. He kept writing to Dadaji that he can’t do this sort of job. ‘A fully drenched man will never fear the rains’- was his grandfather’s reply. As his first acting stint he was given an old man’s role because of his baldness. He used to watch all the old men in parks, note their gait and behaviour. Finally he was thrown out of his role and it was given to Sanjeev Kumar and he was offered a small role of an elderly man. It was disillusioning and he decided to take the next train to Shimla. While in the taxi to Railway Station he remembered Dadaji’s words. He went to Mahesh Bhatt sahib’s house, climbed all six floors with vigour that emanated from anger at being insulted to a lower role. Boldly told Bhatt that he had no guts, and though he respected him yet he was ready to curse him too because Dutt Sahib had insulted a Brahmin (ie Anupam). With that things got sorted out. What the actor wanted to convey was that one has to take life in his own hands; “if you are on the path of truth you win, truth always wins. Be honest and be cool, be respectful and be cool. Today’s children are born in independent India, in a free vibrant India. They need not be like my generation. We were born in pre-Independence and those struggles were quite sometime. I’m not here to sermonise'”, he concluded.
As an afterthought, he gave a piece of sound advice to the students, “You youngsters are very frank you needn’t go with your parents. But always remember that you respect them, that is very important. You will be parents someday and remember if you want your children to treat you with respect, you should treat your parents with respect today”. Expressing his gratitude and respect to all those elders who guided, corrected, scolded and taught him, Anupam Kher as a last note reminded that the priority should be parents, teachers and country- Country is most important in the world. ‘In your passport after your name, your nationality flashes. You are in a great progressing country. The tricolour is your nationality, ‘ he said with a sense of pride.
Cultural programme, felicitation of CBSE toppers and release of story book ‘Reflections-III’ made for a memorable evening.
Zangoora: The Gypsy Prince dazzled at The Asian School’s 25th Founders Day, produced by Vibrations Dance Studio. The play was Directed by Harshit Gupta, Parth Joshi, and Shubham Sharma, and choreography by Harshit Gupta and Ananya Singh, the performance captivated the audience, celebrating a milestone with vibrant artistry.
Pics: Mohtshim Khan
