Note - Any reference to any living being living or dead is purely coincidental.
Rags to Riches -- What Shashi can teach you?
Shashi was born on a full moon night at 11:55 pm on Wednesday,April 19th , 1985.This was one of
the most inauspicious days of the year.Shashi had unusually high amount of body hair.The doctor had to perform a hair
removal surgery as soon as Shashi was born as the childs face couldnt be seen due to the unusual hair growth.
Shashi was taken hom to a remote village in Attapadi,in Kerala.As is the custom in India,parents of Shashi called a
renowned astrologer to check their son's future.The astrologer was stunned to see Shash's horoscope.Jupiter and Mars were
on top of each other in the 1st house of the chart.This was a rare phenomenon indeed.Shashi had 2 yogams -- 1)Karadi yogam
which was responsible for the hair growth 2)Nithya Niranthana Ariyapedana yogam , which would give the recipient a mind
craving for fame and attention.
Thus ,Shashi started growing up in the hills of Attapadi.Shashi's childhood was uneventful.He completed his education
in a local koothara engineering and got placement in an MNC in Bangalore,India's IT hub.
Shashi packed his bag and left to Blore.The shift was a shock to our hero.When he opened the page 3 of Bangalore Times,his jaw
dropped open and he saw stars.Guys with 6 packs,interviews with film and sports starts and beautiful girls in mini skirts captured his imagination.
Shashi always thought that the entire world was an Attapadi.He was merely dumbfounded.
Shashi rented a 1bhk and also got himself an internet connection.He wanted to learn more about the new universe which he found himself in.Shashi wrote himself
2 goals in his diary :
1)To attain fame and have his profile in wikipedia by the age of 30.
2)To have a bank account of 1 crore by the age of 30.
Shashi was consumed by his rage within to become famous.He started frequenting places owhere the big and rich hang out.Shashi would wait in the parking lots and observe
the ways of the elite of society.He quickly realized that film stars,religious leaders and sports stars had the shutter bugs on them all the time.He also realized that in his
current profession , he would just waste his time sitting in front of a computer cathing all kinds of illnesses.His sould burned with jealousy and craving.
Thus Shashi zeroed in 2 areas where he would focus his attention :
1)Arts and films
2)Sports
3)Spirituality
A friend at office mentioned to Shashi that an inter-company cricket competition was starting from next week and the team selection was happening the next day.
Shashi reached the ground prompty after wearing 10 kilos of sunscreen to protect his glowing complexion.He had watched vidoes of Sachin's desert storm innings
at Sharjah and Kumble's 10 wickets haul to get himself charged up for the occassion.Shashi was asked to bat for 2 overs.He got bowled 10 times in 12 balls and
Shashi's sports dream ended.Thus point 2 was out of his list.The bowler who bowled him was prompty selected to the team.He had come ,hoping to get selected as a batsman
and got selected as the team;s numero uno bowler.
Strange are the ways of God indeed.
Shashi then shifted to point 3 - spirituality.Shashi immersed himself in the local library and started reading on tenets of Christianity,Hinduim,Islam,Zorastianism,
Scientology,Atheism ,Akbars Zin-e-elahi and other religious books.Shashi himself was agnoistic.He had gone to a Ganesha temple before his MNC interview and offered
the elephant God a cocunut.Just as he stepped foot outside the temple, a cocunut fell on his head.But the next day , he got his dream job as well.Shashi was confused.
The question looming on millions of minds loomed on him as well-Is there a God?
After much research ,Shashi compiled a book of 500 pages with his thoughts on spirituality.He found a publisher and got 20,000 copies of the book printed.Today ,after
10 years ,not even 1 copy of the book has sold.Thus point 3 was also out of his list.
But , to his credit ,Shashi had a never say die attitude.This was a do or die situation.He had to make it big in films.
Shashi started roaming around Ranga Shankara and other cultural centres around Bangalore,hoping to land a role in a play.After much struggle,Shashi got himself
selected into a role which had no dialoges to deliver or expressions to emote.However , he was on 7th heaven.The play was critically acclaimed and reported in the
local newspapers.This was Shashi's first tryst with fame and recognition.
High on confidence ,Shashi decided to start writing film reviews.As someone said,if you want to be associated with films but don't have the skills to make a film-
Be a film critic.Shashi bought himself an oxford dictionary for guidance.He started watching all movies released and started reading all the existing reviews of the movie.
After his research,he would open the dictionary and find hard to pronounce words and then look to fit them in a sentence.Shashi thus started writing film reviews and
gave it to local newspapers to publish.
Shashi wrote himself a wikipedia profile and uploaded to wikipedia every time he wrote a film review.Every time wiki pedia deleted it within a day.But Shashi kept trying.
An onsite opportunity came up for Shashi from his office to travel to California.Shashi was delighted as this would give him a chance to be near Hollywood.He
travelled to CA and started repeating his Bangalore operation there as well.He started writing film reviews of all Hollywood movies and kept creating his reference
in Wikipedia and Wikipedia kept deleting it.The cat and mouse game went on.
Wikipedia meanwhile published a top 10 list of people in the world who had submitted entries to Wikipedia.Shashi topped the list.This news article had captured
eyeballs across the world.Many news papers started interviewing Shashi' on his relentless pursuit to get into Wikipedia.Shashi was even invited to the radio station
to give a talk.Steven Spielberg ,happened to listen to this interview and was fascinated by the interview of Shashi and decided to meet him.
12th January ,2020 was an unforgettable day in Shashi's life.It was the day when he got a call from none other than Steven Spielberg.Spielberg spent a week Shashi
learning about his life story,understanding his psychology and body language and decided to make a movie on our hero.
The movie was named -- "Lust for Fame" .Tom Hannks played the role of Shashi.The movie went onto be a blockbuster and also won 10 Oscars.
Thus ,Shashi finally made it to Wikipedia !!
Moral of the story :: Who knows, there might be Tharoor in every Shashi.Its upto you to bring it out.Who do you want to be -- A Thoor or a Shashi??
