R. Madhavan - Bollywood Actor

 So, first of all, thank you very much forhaving me here at the Inspire Series. It’s worked dramatically, I’m alreadyinspired to be addressing this really August intellectual gathering of people from Harvard,a place that my mother thought I will never reach. But you know what, lot of people have spokenbefore me and eloquently and described their dreams for India and given figures and factsthat either are skeptical and like, Mr. Omar says, aspirational. But I’m just an actor and I’m going tojust give you my dream shamelessly, because that’s the thing that I can do best. And by that, I mean when we talk of dreamswe have one of our greatest scientists and philanthropists Dr. Abdul Kalam, and he saidsomething which is very interesting. He said, “Dreams are not what you have whenyou sleep. The true dreams are the ones that don’tlet you sleep”. He said, “When you have that dream onceit’s a dream; when you have it twice it becomes a desire. And when you see it for the third time consecutively,it becomes a passion, an aim and a goal”, and that is the passion with which I wantto see this fantasy that I have for India 2030. And Abraham Lincoln also was a dreamer andyou know, but he said one thing that makes most sense in trying to achieve this goalthat I have dreamed for my nation. He said, “If I have six hours to cut downa tree, then I would spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.” There’s a great philosophy in that. In this era of instant gratification we justkeep thinking we can achieve all these goals by just tweaking this, tweaking that, it’snot true. I really believe that a missionary zeal isrequired to make that quantum change, that can make 2030 of what I’m dreaming aboutright now. And just let’s look at India as a country,what a unique nation! Seriously. Thousands of years old of culture and tradition,many many invasions, being ruled for many years and we still somehow managed to maintainour identity. We still somehow have managed to maintainour Indian-ness — our beliefs, our faith and you know, yeah, there has been — wehave our drawbacks — there is corruption, there is violence, there is differences betweenthe different religions and sects and caste and everything. But I can’t help but think looking at Indiaat the geography that we’re not doing really that bad. Look at all the other nations around in theworld. Look at our neighbors, compared to that thereis somebody in India who’s doing something right for us to be called a growing economyand being projected as the third largest economy in 2026 and the most educated and young nationin the world, it’s still functional democracy. So let’s first accept the fact that thereis somebody, some people in India with the right ideas and the ability to lead the nationto where we are today. Under that assumption — under that assumptionwe are also very capable of finding very unique solutions to the problems that generally theworld faces. And one of them, of course, is the fact thatwe found freedom through non-violence and non-cooperation; who would’ve thought thatwas possible? We have some other – no, seriously I meanit was as radical of thought then as it is today, and one man in a loincloth would believein faith and complete conviction was able to do that for us — you know, Mahatma Gandhi,and it’s an amazing country of people like Mahavir, Gautam Buddha and Mahatma Gandhiand then Bhagat Singh who also had a dream. He dreamed then 85 years ago, that I dreamof an India where no infant cries for the want of milk, no youngster is deprived ofrelevant education, and no youth goes door to door finding a job. Sadly, it’s still a dream today. And I dream of a 2030 when this dream becomesirrelevant. I dream of a 2030 when everybody is so equallysatisfied with what they’re doing, that they’re able to actually devote about moretime back to art and culture which is another great important aspect of our country. Now we need to be – for that to happen weneed to be a healthy nation. And when I say healthy, I remember preparingfor a film of mine which was released recently where I had to look like a boxer and I hadthis biceps and triceps that had to be there. So I decided just to work on the parts thatis seen outside my clothes. So I was just working out of my biceps andmy triceps and my shoulders but you know what I suddenly realized, the strengths that Ihad in my arms and biceps was not actually enough for me to look even fit because itis disproportionate growth. It is the kind of growth that will not makeyou fit or strong but actually make you look inadequate. And that is what is happening to India today. Everybody says we are the largest economy— we’re going to be the most populated country in the years to come and you knowwith economic superpower and supremacy in rocket and space technology which I am privyto and then the IT giants and smarter cities. But ladies and gentlemen, I really believethat more than smarter cities we require smart villages. And this is going to be primarily what I talkabout today. You know, a nation is only as strong as itsweakest link and rural India is our weakest link. See, it’s important that growth and progressgoes hand-in-hand with villages also getting onto the same train towards economic freedom,super-powerdom, all terms that has been coined for a successful country but that is not happening,the reason being we’re beginning to ignore them, we’re beginning to actually believethat — This is a very interesting line that I havefound, where they say that everybody believes that they know what is required for gettingthe underprivileged and the poor up to speed with the rest of the country. OK, and we always start assuming that thisis what they want; this is how we can help the poor and the villages and this is whatthey need. And we can’t be more wrong, because whenyou assume, and as the spelling goes you make an ass of you and me, let me tell you howthat happened to a friend of mine. His name was — he’s a very profound doctor,a gastroenterologist, and he got a call from his patient Mr. Abdul, who said, “DoctorSaab, my wife is really really ill and she’s got a big stomach ache and she can’t sitand she can’t sleep and she’s in big pain, can I come and visit you?” And he said, ‘Yes, by all means’. And like all patients today he’s done hisresearch, he’s gone into the internet and he said, “usko yeh ho sakta hain, wo saktahain, and the doctor said, ‘Don’t worry let me handle it’. And he checked her out and he said “Shehas an infected appendix, so I have to do a surgery and she’ll be fine.” The surgery was done, she was fine and Abdulwas a happy man. One year later, he calls back to doctor andsays, “Sir, my wife has got a stomach ache, please do the appendix operation, she’llbe fine.” And so doctor said — the doctor Manu said,“Listen, I am the doctor, let me diagnose, Abdul, please bring her to the clinic andwe’ll fix it up.” But he said, ‘No, no, sir fix up that operationdate, we’ll do it in half an hour and we’ll be back — just she needs that appendix removed’. So now he’s losing his patience, he says“Let me do the diagnosis, Abdul, bring her to the clinic.” And he’s still insisting and finally thedoctor lost it, and he said, “Listen, I am the doctor and let me tell you that everyhuman being has only one appendix, and I have already taken out the appendix. So please don’t tell me how to do my job.” Abdul waited very patiently for the doctorto finish with his assumptions and then he shot back very meekly, he says, “Sir, Iagree with you, every human being can have one appendix but a man can have two wives,right?” So when we start assuming what the rural Indianeeds, we do what I think is most dangerous. In my vast experiences of shooting in reallyrural India’s, and villages and small [cook-gramins] like they call it in Tamil, really small places,I realized shockingly that the biggest financial burden for a person of this particular village,would you all be able to guess what his biggest financial burden is — five minutes! Hey so I’m going to speak for 20 today,I am going to reduce the number of questions, I’m prepared, is that OK? OK, so can you all tell me, anybody, quickanswers — anybody know which is the biggest financial burden for a man in one of thesesmall villages? Sorry, tap, health, OK. Not health, not the marriage of a daughter,not education, not – liquor, thank you for reminding me, no. Say it again, dowry, no, no, no, no. Let me put you out of your misery. I’m saying why does he need financial assistancefor — the answer is the untimely death of one relative of a senior in their family,that is the one occasion he can’t prepare for, that is one occasion where the ceremonydemands that he spend a certain amount of money, feed a certain amount of people, usethe funeral expenditures and that’s where he takes the loan and that’s where he getsindebted and that’s where, to escape that particular embarrassment and humility of nothaving the ability to perform the function every year as a specter of the Indian traditionthat he decides to leave the village, because he’s made to feel inadequate. Lord Macaulay in 1735 had spoken in the BritishParliament and said, “The only way to rule India is to make the men there feel inadequate”,he said and truly so, that unless he feels that what he has is lesser than what othershave, you will not be able to rule him. And within a very short period they provedthemselves right. The rural India today is feeling inadequate,they are feeling like they’re not even part of our country. And what happens with that is they start thenlooking at opportunities in villages and saying better education, better health, better lifestyleand no humility for not having performed the funeral properly, they decide to give up whothey are and move to the cities. And who they are is what is more importantfor us to understand. Who they are, are actually the timekeepersand the bookkeepers of our deep-rooted traditional culture and stories. You know, you should see how tradition andculture flourishes in a happy village in India. We don’t have psychiatrist as a big fashionthing in India and they still manage to maintain a great level of sanity. You know, there’s a great phrase from thepoem, ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling where it says, ‘Dream but not make dreams your master;think but not make thoughts your aim; meet with triumph and disaster and treat thosetwo Impostors just the same.’ It’s very easy to say it but how do youtreat those two Impostors just the same? The answer lies in the tradition and the cultureand the books and the epics that are so prominent and predominant in our country – The BhagavadGita, the Koran, the interpretation of that in the subcontinent, the Bible, the Guru GranthSahib, the Granny stories, and you know how to handle the diversities and the setbacksand you’re able to sit back, assemble — reassemble yourself, come back and fight with the sameglory again. And we don’t give him — when you don’tgive a villager that, you’re depriving him, we’re depriving ourselves of what I thinkis one of the most important survival tools in today’s world, which is the culture andtradition. So I dream of a 2030 where rural India isas developed as the rest of the world, is as aspirational as the rest of India and wherethe villager is providedg with the same opportunities as it is available in the cities. And after a hard day’s work, a villageris actually able to come back, sit down, have a drink, put his feet up and start thinkingabout art and culture and poetry. That would be a dream that I have for 2030— a practical dream that I have for 2030. And the dreams that your parents and my parentshad when we were in college — urban middle class – where everything revolved aroundthe boy, studying hard, getting into a technical college of a repute and then getting intoa reputed managements college and finally the green card. And if it was the girl, then it was a spousewith a green card. I dream of a 2030 where students the worldover will dream of a blue card, will dream of having once actually come to India andstudy and imbibe the knowledge that we have as a nation. It used to be true: we were the first universityin the world – Nalanda was the university where people came in from far and wide. So it’s not a pipe dream, it’s a practicaldream that I have, and I think that’s easily, easily attainable. And finally, before I wind up, I think, I’lldream of a 2030 where we have a meritocratic electoral base which selects its leaders andwhose leaders believe that it is more important to serve — with a missionary zeal to servethe nation rather than rule it. You know, there is another stanza from thesame poem which says that, if they have the ability to talk to the crowds yet keep yourvirtue, walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch, if neither good friends nor foes canhurt you, yet all men count with you but none too much — if only the politicians understoodthe gist of that line, we would have a progressive country by 2030 where we’ll all be proudof not just the way the country is running but also proud about our politicians. And finally, you know, I’m an actor andthe dream that I have for myself is that in 2030 I’m as relevant and as handsome hopefullybut if age was to catch up, then they probably would have mapped my face by then and usetechnology to make me look as young or old, as the role desired me to look, and I’mstill able to romance the pretty young things that would be part of the industry in 2030. I see that’s got many guys going ham. And finally as an actor, I’m used and proneto dialogues, I love to speak dialogues, and I recently found a line that blew me apartand I thought it was a phenomenal Hindi film dialogue, where this great gentleman has said,“That whatever I am today and all the achievements that have been – that has been possibleby me and what will eventually also be possible by me in the near future are all because ofmy angel mother.” Do you know who said that? You know who said that? Shockingly Abraham Lincoln! So I dream of a 2030 where every Indian saysthe exact same thing about his mother and not just about his mother but also about hismotherland – and also for the sake of posterity about his mother-in-law. But hey, ladies and gentlemen, what do I know? I am an actor. Thank you very much for your patient hearing.