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Here are the mapmakers
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For some people, the straight and narrow path is not the route to salvation...
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SAILING IN TWO BOATS Aditi Gowitrikar promises to return to her patients if her viewers run out of patience
`Two roads diverged in a yellow wood... '
Robert Frost, whose poem The Road Not Taken has gone down in history as the song of those at a career crossroads, rejoiced at his decision to take one path, the one less travelled by.
But when it comes to forks in the road, there are those who manage to take both each as strenuous, as challenging as the other.
Many would have dreamt of basking in the limelight on stage or screen, but not many have the courage or liberty to exchange a steady job for the unpredictability of such a profession.
ANOTHER FRAME Boman Irani turned from photography to acting PHOTO: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH
Yes, routine may breed boredom, but it is compensated by the cheque at the end of the month.
The excitement of the unexpected, on the other hand, is relieved by just one certainty: that of uncertainty.
Two names on India's celluloid firmament spring to mind - the celebrated Dr. Shriram Lagoo, who became so famous in Bollywood and on the Marathi stage that his expulsion from the Medical Council towards the end of his life caused little more than a flutter among his fans, and Tamil superstar Rajnikant, whose rise from the ranks of a bus conductor to cinematic glory is the stuff of legend.
Equally daring
There are plenty of others. And if their choices bring them less instant fame, it doesn't make them less admirable.
Take for instance, former civil servant Harsh Mander who served in the bureaucracy for 20 years as one of the most daring officials. But at the peak of his career, he resigned and joined a movement for social rights in 1980.
STILL STRUCTURING BEAUTY Madhavi Mudgal switched from architecture to classical dance. PHOTO: K. GAJENDRAN
Since then, be it his wrath against the Gujarat genocide or social causes taken up through ActionAid or Aman Biradari, a communal harmony group he has initiated, Mander has chosen the brave path of opposing society's wrongs.
"I have no basic regrets about resigning. As a civil servant too, my concerns were the same. But I realised that at many places I stood alone and unsupported. So, working outside the system was more satisfying," says Mander, who has "filed affidavits in the Supreme Court for 2000 cases that were closed after the Gujarat carnage."
And then we have well-knowndancer Madhavi Mudgal. Trained in architecture from Delhi's School of Planning and Architecture, she took up Odissi as a career.
"I used to dance since childhood, but for fun. I couldn't know when it crept into me as a passion. It was in the final year of my architecture course that I had to take a decision.
And despite knowing that dance was not economically viable, I opted for it," recalls Madhavi, adding that the two mediums are not all that incompatible.
"In choreography you use masks, faces, directions and flow of energy to follow a certain space and time. My training in architecture helped me translate that into my dance," she says.
MUSIC IS HIS MEDICINE Palash Sen, a qualified doctor, is the lead singer of Euphoria PHOTO: K. MURALI KUMAR
Actor Anuj Sawhney, an MBA, took the risk of entering filmdom and is using his education to work on his economic stability.
"My MBA training helps me in taking calculated risks and planning my career in the film industry, where talent is only one of the criteria," he remarks. He uses the SWOT approach - an acronym for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat - from his MBA to tailor his success.
He cites his forthcoming film Naina as an example. "I am not in the film's publicity material. So I am using my own means to meet the press, see my strengths, use opportunities to combat any threats and weaknesses."
Similarly, actor Boman Irani, few know, isone of the successful photographers in India. The pursuit didn't bring him much fame, though. It was his switch to film acting that provided him celebrity status.
Says Irani, "People tend to confuse success and fame. I was successful as a photographer as well. As an actor, I am both successful and famous, because of the reach of cinema as a medium."
Let's not forget Palash Sen of Euphoria fame, who chucked the medical profession for the love of music.
The same goes for Aditi Gowitrikar, who was a medical doctor before her selection as Gladrags supermodel catapulted her to ramp and screen glory.
"I have the option to go back to practicing medicine if I am not successful in films," she says simply. Akshay Kumar, who was a judo-karate and kung fu teacher and worked in a restaurant before he chose modelling and cinema to be successful,
"When I got Rs.12,00 for one hour in a modelling session instead of 5000 a month as for teaching, I decided to go for modelling. My training as a judo expert put me way ahead of others," recalls Akshay.
Academic credentials
Then the academic credentials of the likes of Amisha Patel and Tusshar Kapoor are too well known to need reiteration.
As for academics, those who make it to the Indian Institutes of Technology are the envy of the student population.
But Rahul Ram, lead singer of Indian Ocean, is one of those who mothballed their engineering degrees - besides one from Cornell University in the U.S. - to take up music. And once upon a time, Rahul Roy of Aashiqui fame was a KG teacher in the U.K.
A sense of adventure? The lure of lucre?
As Mander would tell you, "One life is too small to do so many things."
RANA SIDDIQUI
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