I am participating in the #SachchiAdvice Contest by MaxLife in Association with BlogAdda.

By: Keyur Seta

I firmly believe that films are a reflection of our real lives. This also includes some larger-than-life Hindi films. The only difference is that situations are dramatized in such films for entertainment purpose, sometimes to an unbelievable extent.

But if you take away the larger-than-life elements from Bollywood films, you would be able to relate with them because the situations or challenges faced by characters remain the same. So, similarly, the phrase “Kahani Mein Twist,” is also applicable in real lives. I am sure many of you must have encountered at least some major turn in your life, quite unexpectedly.

Needless to say, I too have encountered such a twist, which was born out of a #SachchiAdvice. But it would be an understatement to say that that advice made a difference to my life. It simply changed my life… completely… and this is not a larger-than-life element.

The story began 15 years ago. Circa 2000. I passed 10^th standard with first class. As per the silly mentality of our society, all high rankers go into Science, average ones in Commerce and low rankers in Arts. I belonged to the second category so I went into Commerce. Also because most of my friends took Commerce.

The decision turned out to be my worst ever. I soon realized I am not meant for Commerce and my interest lies in writing instead of tallying numbers. I felt like Veer Pratap Singh (Shah Rukh Khan) of Veer Zara, who visited his girlfriend’s place, not knowing he would be jailed out of nowhere. I somehow passed 12^th. I spent those two years like Veer spent 22 years in prison.

Despite passing HSC, I wasn’t happy at all as I dreaded at the thought of continuing Commerce, which was going to be even tougher now. In other words, I thought I would have to spend more jail time like Veer. The sight of the balance sheet and those crazy numbers gave my nightmares.

But then I happened to meet one of our family friends. It was just a chance meeting that turned out to be divine intervention as it changed my life forever. I visited the middle-aged couple to hand over something on my mom’s behalf. While speaking about various issues, our conversation turned towards my career plan (or the lack of it).

The couple had read some of my writings and they happened to like them a lot. So, when I said I am having a pathetic time in Commerce, they not only suggested that I should switch over to Arts but also urged me to do so. In the words of the uncle, “Tum yeh baniyagiri mein kahan chale gaye?”

In the present day, although I might not be greatly successful, I have made an identity for myself in the field of writing. But it surely wouldn’t have happened without the advice of those two people. After returning home from that fateful meeting, I thought about it long, discussed with my parents and finally went ahead and changed my stream to Arts.

From then onwards, study was no longer study for me as I felt completely at home with theories. It was more like a knowledge-gaining process that I greatly enjoyed. I used to look forward to studying in the morning. I can’t recall this happening ever before. This increased my interest and skills and writing. It became my biggest or, rather, only professional skill.

Today as I look back, I am utterly scared to even think of what would have happened to me had I not implemented that #SachchiAdvice and switched over to arts. You wouldn’t be reading this blog post for sure.

Finally, it won’t be wrong to say that the couple turned out to be Samiya Siddiqui for me. She was Veer’s lawyer in the film (played by Rani Mukerji), who helped him come out of jail and get reunited with Zaara. These two individuals did the same for me.

By now, you must have guessed that Zaara symbolizes my interest in writing, from which I got estranged during those years in Commerce. Today I am the happy Veer Pratap Singh seen during the end credits of the film, although definitely not that old.