How’s that for something that I would like people to remember me with? You know all these rich and famous get called onto the TV shows and at the end of the interview they are asked “so how would you like others to remember you?” and you get all the well rehearsed answers like “as a good human being”; “a great person”; “a kind person”; “a good friend”, yada yada yada
So I started thinking what would my response to the above be. You have to keep in mind that I have had quite a long time to plan this response. So, I began with the same old crap about being “a good human being, a great person”. Upon a little analysis I found nothing so special about being a good human being. Needed were two opposable thumbs, an Ok brain to body mass proportion (I know I know, I probably lost out on that criteria) and an upright walking posture and yes I almost forgot a passport proclaiming that you were a part of some social structure. So I thought about the second part, the one about being a great person. Now what exactly was a great person? There were so many things to attribute to a great person that by the time you went through the entire list, it was impossible to actually qualify as one. I know I probably cannot even fathom how to begin on the path of the greatness as a person but I would certainly be very very surprised to find more than a handful who have any idea of where the path actually leads let alone where the end lies. So it was after much thought that I scrapped this one and moved over to something different, thoda hat ke!!
My next well researched response was “a good friend”. Cracked it I thought I had. I mean how could you find a flip side to that one? A good friend! Jackpot! Until that is I realized that how many people would actually be there whom I could be a good friend to? Did I actually want to be such a good friend to so many people that a sizeable mass of people gathering around behind my back would call me a friend at all let alone a good one at that? Heck no! I want to have my share of enemies and spiteful rivals. I want to compete against all odds and have the feeling of being victorious against some and experience the hollowness of losing to others. No, I would not want so many people saying that I was a good friend that the very meaning of the word would have to be distorted. I am accused of many things as it is, please let this one not be on my head. Thank you
Now that I had two seemingly good looking options down the drain, I was once again on square one regarding the all important response. So it was a long time till I hit upon another great sounding line “I want people to remember me as I would remember my parents” ha! Take that you all. Final word. Home run. But I have this pesky conscience that keeps turning up on the most inauspicious of moments primarily to burst my balloons. All it had to say for this statement was “you sure?” I mean how can anyone else understand what my parents mean to me? How do you describe God to someone else? How do you even begin to describe the attributes that define your parents to another person? Caught at the boundary by a flying Jonty Rhodes I felt like. Another brainwave washed down the ditch.
The next seriously good line I came with was “the king of good times” (ok I did not come up with that line but the association of this to the burning question was absolutely mine.) But this fell flat when I considered that not all times were good times and was I going to restrict my remembrance to such a limited and not at all reliable time period? As it is I am kind of not very well known for my wit and let’s not even talk about his neighbor charm. This option was lost from the very beginning due to practicality and feasibility issues.
It took some doing but I slowly put the thought out of my mind. It was partly due to the fact that I was getting nowhere with the answer and partly because I came to realize that the TV interview was increasingly becoming unlikely. So I said why bother at all! And then it happened. I discovered Pink Floyd and I discovered this song called “Wish you were here….” If there were a group of people anywhere in the world at any given point of time who would in their lives feel the need for me to be there for them, it would have to mean that my cause after all not entirely lost in this lifetime. There was still some reason for me to consume my daily quota of food grains. If only some people felt that I was important enough to share their joys and sorrows with me, to include me in their achievements and consult me in their hours of distress, my existence would still be justified. I was still wary of zeroing in on this one. My previous answers had still left quite a painful backstabbing experience. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked this one. Apart from the fact that the tune is simply heavenly and the guitar has a life of its own, these words themselves convey so much more. They encompass that entire bit about being a good friend, human being, person, good times, bad times, everlasting memories et al. And I have a certain tingling feeling in my stomach that I have finally hit upon the one truly defining statement about how I would like people to remember me. Don’t call me your best friend. I don’t mind. Don’t say that I was he the greatest person who ever walked on this earth. I don’t feel bad. Don’t consider me fit for being an important person in your time schedule; I won’t even bat an eyelid. Just for once say “Wish Saurabh was here…” and rest assured that Saurabh would be wishing the same.Long live Pink Floyd.
So I started thinking what would my response to the above be. You have to keep in mind that I have had quite a long time to plan this response. So, I began with the same old crap about being “a good human being, a great person”. Upon a little analysis I found nothing so special about being a good human being. Needed were two opposable thumbs, an Ok brain to body mass proportion (I know I know, I probably lost out on that criteria) and an upright walking posture and yes I almost forgot a passport proclaiming that you were a part of some social structure. So I thought about the second part, the one about being a great person. Now what exactly was a great person? There were so many things to attribute to a great person that by the time you went through the entire list, it was impossible to actually qualify as one. I know I probably cannot even fathom how to begin on the path of the greatness as a person but I would certainly be very very surprised to find more than a handful who have any idea of where the path actually leads let alone where the end lies. So it was after much thought that I scrapped this one and moved over to something different, thoda hat ke!!
My next well researched response was “a good friend”. Cracked it I thought I had. I mean how could you find a flip side to that one? A good friend! Jackpot! Until that is I realized that how many people would actually be there whom I could be a good friend to? Did I actually want to be such a good friend to so many people that a sizeable mass of people gathering around behind my back would call me a friend at all let alone a good one at that? Heck no! I want to have my share of enemies and spiteful rivals. I want to compete against all odds and have the feeling of being victorious against some and experience the hollowness of losing to others. No, I would not want so many people saying that I was a good friend that the very meaning of the word would have to be distorted. I am accused of many things as it is, please let this one not be on my head. Thank you
Now that I had two seemingly good looking options down the drain, I was once again on square one regarding the all important response. So it was a long time till I hit upon another great sounding line “I want people to remember me as I would remember my parents” ha! Take that you all. Final word. Home run. But I have this pesky conscience that keeps turning up on the most inauspicious of moments primarily to burst my balloons. All it had to say for this statement was “you sure?” I mean how can anyone else understand what my parents mean to me? How do you describe God to someone else? How do you even begin to describe the attributes that define your parents to another person? Caught at the boundary by a flying Jonty Rhodes I felt like. Another brainwave washed down the ditch.
The next seriously good line I came with was “the king of good times” (ok I did not come up with that line but the association of this to the burning question was absolutely mine.) But this fell flat when I considered that not all times were good times and was I going to restrict my remembrance to such a limited and not at all reliable time period? As it is I am kind of not very well known for my wit and let’s not even talk about his neighbor charm. This option was lost from the very beginning due to practicality and feasibility issues.
It took some doing but I slowly put the thought out of my mind. It was partly due to the fact that I was getting nowhere with the answer and partly because I came to realize that the TV interview was increasingly becoming unlikely. So I said why bother at all! And then it happened. I discovered Pink Floyd and I discovered this song called “Wish you were here….” If there were a group of people anywhere in the world at any given point of time who would in their lives feel the need for me to be there for them, it would have to mean that my cause after all not entirely lost in this lifetime. There was still some reason for me to consume my daily quota of food grains. If only some people felt that I was important enough to share their joys and sorrows with me, to include me in their achievements and consult me in their hours of distress, my existence would still be justified. I was still wary of zeroing in on this one. My previous answers had still left quite a painful backstabbing experience. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked this one. Apart from the fact that the tune is simply heavenly and the guitar has a life of its own, these words themselves convey so much more. They encompass that entire bit about being a good friend, human being, person, good times, bad times, everlasting memories et al. And I have a certain tingling feeling in my stomach that I have finally hit upon the one truly defining statement about how I would like people to remember me. Don’t call me your best friend. I don’t mind. Don’t say that I was he the greatest person who ever walked on this earth. I don’t feel bad. Don’t consider me fit for being an important person in your time schedule; I won’t even bat an eyelid. Just for once say “Wish Saurabh was here…” and rest assured that Saurabh would be wishing the same.Long live Pink Floyd.
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