Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai

Growing up in the 1990s had more to do with the TV than with the laptop. If you're a '90s kid, you'd easily relate to B4U Music more than MTV, with Hip Hip Hurray! more than Dil Dost Dance; and most important of all: with talk shows more than talent shows. 

I am a '90s kid and I grew up watching more TV than YouTube. Amongst a hundred favourites, there was a particular talk show called 'Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai'. If you haven't had a chance to see this ever, you should know that it tentatively fell into the same category as Rendezvous with Simi Grewal and Koffee with Karan. This one was hosted by Farooq Sheikh and I can't pin-point what exactly drew me to this chat-show but something about it was truly magnetic. So much so, that I remember it starkly even today. Probably my memory, of these talk shows, goes beyond pure reminiscence.

When I face turning points in life, stand at a cross-road of a lifetime or experience any incident, event, miracle or mishappening; sub-consciously I weigh its importance in the grand scheme of things. I ask myself this: If I were to become famous and if I made my way through a chat show, a modern day version of Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai, would I talk about this particular moment positively or negatively?

And then, I wander off in my own chain of thoughts judging myself, phrasing lines, expressing joys of acceptance and sorrows from commission of mistakes. 

It is only rarely that I realize that if you are a guest at a chat-show, the episode dedicated to you could land up being utferly boring if you have no mistakes to own up. 

Having no sorrows and lows to share with the world, would make you a boring person because it is about how you balance it all out in one lifetime. 

After all, Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai.