That one task

Disclaimer: Any resemblance to anyone living or dead or walking dead is purely purely intentional.

“ I heard about what you did. That was awesome man” – He was congratulated by a sixth degree connection at work. He nodded back with a bordering-on-smirkish smile and waved back. He was soaking in all the sudden limelight he got into because of his feat. The feat that he thought he neither would nor could ever do. But as Mark Twain once famously said, ‘Time and circumstances maketh a man’. May be, Mark Twain didn’t say it but who cares.

As you imagine the mosquito coil chakravyuh, the flashback begins. He hated what he did since the school days. He was repeated asked by everybody to do this particular feat but he kept away from it. He thought it was a shame to do that. How could someone do something like that just to be popular? He thought it was insane.

During college days, he was repeatedly asked to do this as well. At some point of time, he started believing that majority of the world was conspiring against him to make him do this. He felt alone. He was embarrassed. He was shy of it. There were many occasions where he was literally dragged into it. During those torturous moments, he somehow managed to keep his grit on and ended up not doing it. He was shamed and humiliated for this. But he did what he believed was the right thing to do. By this time, everyone gave up on him. Or that’s what he thought.

When he entered the corporate world, this thorn resurfaced. He was being wooed, influenced, blackmailed, requested and threatened on number of occasions to do that particular task. He stayed immovable as a rock.  But he felt his attitude towards that task has changed. Previously it was disgust and aversion towards it. But now, he understood that it’s not that he hated it. But it’s because he always thought he cannot be good at it. It’s more of lack of self-confidence in the verge of turning to a complex. The hate or the aversion he thought he had were merely an imaginary blanket. But still he could not muster enough confidence to do it. He went to www.bucketlist.org and entered this task as one that he would like to do in his lifetime. He was on a hate-love relationship with this task.

Then there came a day when he finally decided to give it a shot. In fact, he did that.He did THAT one task he has been evading consciously throughout his life time. He tried to dance. In front of audience.  The after effects were something he didn’t expect. All his peers and friends started congratulating him. This went viral on youtube. In fact the video got more hits than Psy’s Gangnam style and Dhanush’s ‘Why this kolaveri’. Oprah and the Kardashians tried to book his date for their respective shows. He has become an overnight star. Thanks to the one dance that he tried. He heard that the dance was the best in the group. If you think it was the frustration that was kept building up all these years which burst out like a volcano and made him look so good, then you are so wrong.  In fact, in an interview with Ron Burgundy of Anchorman fame, he talked about his secret of success –

“ Everybody thinks that an artist has to be original. A creator. But I beg to differ. When you create something for the first time you tend to fail. People don’t recognize you. But when you copy what somebody else did with little more masala, you are in for a ride. People would be amazed and amused. They will venerate you like god. One simple real life example that I would like to notify here. Do you remember why Marathon was started? The greek soldier-messenger Pheidippides ran 26 miles non-stop to deliver an important message. You know what happened to him. He Died. Yes, he died. But based on that, some real good marketing guy started Marathon race and he minted millions. So the point is, it’s not necessary that you always create something. You can copy something and still become famous. Why am I saying it here? How in the world is it even relevant to the topic? I am coming to that. On the day of the event, the group huddled together and discussed what were the dance steps that we have to do. Being totally inexperienced, I could not get anything that they discussed. However, I did notice that there is this one guy who was actively discussing the steps and teaching them. I immediately knew what i had to do. I decided copy all the moves that person would be performing. And i did exactly the same thing during the event. When I watched the videos I was astonished. Not about the excellent performance of mine but the poorer performance of all the others in the group. This made me look better and the world bought it.”

After all this hoopla he went home that night and typed www.bucketlist.org in the browser. He logged in and searched through his bucket list. His bucket list was of enormous length. He finally found that particular task and struck it off – “To dance without any inhibitions in front of audience of 20 people or more”

—The Beginning—