Recently, there was a talent night in my housing complex. Oh boy! Was it good… These talent shows celebrate mediocrity and bravery. After all, to sit through an entire talent show at any CHS makes one brave for then you have to watch, listen and clap after the ‘brilliant’ performances of children and adults, alike, who understand rhythm, tune and beats to such perfection that you forget all you know about these.
In ‘Death in Venice’, a film I had watched as a student, a character says, “Do you know what lies at the bottom of the mainstream? Mediocrity.” I was reminded of this line while watching ‘Gully Boy’. Relax, I am not saying ‘Gully Boy’ was mediocre or that it was mainstream. I repeat I am not terming ‘Gully Boy’ ordinary. All those who have put down the paper, or closed the link and are planning to write to the editor, PLEASE read till the end.
What I am saying is that the character in the ‘Venice’ film was wrong. Mediocrity doesn’t lie at the bottom, it floats at the top. But not like algae or scum that seems to be taking over the Powai Lake. It is like the lotus that Bheem fetched for Draupadi in Mahabharata. But unlike Bheem’s lotus, mediocrity germinates in the house under the loving care of parents. They nourish it with proud statements like, “You look like a hero/heroine”; “What a divine voice”; “What talent”. The children believe these heady words, and in their heads they start seeing themselves as stars.
Then, come the neighbours and housing societies with their talent shows. And the claps heard there are like some superfood that makes these children into entire constellations in themselves.
But soon comes the teen years. The whole world suddenly wakes up and realises that they have been amiss in instilling so much confidence and assuredness in what will eventually become teens and that all this self-belief is poisonous when present in teens. The world then sets out to reverse the process by suggesting that those dreams that it helped nurture are unreal and best left behind. That it is time to wake up, smell the coffee and step out into the real world.
Most teens believe what has been explained to them and ensure that they wake up and pass out as adults. These adults, having been taught the virtue of following, end up as leaders of parties, MNCs, and what not – At the top of the lake, smelling like the lotuses they are. Take that world.
Ultimately, we benchmark our way to the middle. So if the majority of the world is mediocre and the judgement of everything is based on mediocrity then how can it be bad?
And what about those that refuse to believe in this truism? Well, many try to have a go at turning their dreams into reality, and some like Murad try to “apne sacchai ko sapne se mel khane ke liye majboor” kartehe. But the majority, afraid of sinking, float to the top so that they survive and live.
