[Music]
first of all and extremely humble for
being invited to this August platform by
TEDx Chet Carroll University and so made
Walia
I would like to introduce myself
I have Nandita Puri I’m a journalist
writer but most of all 25 years of my
life I have shared my life with one of
the world’s legendary actors Shri Om
Puri so most of the time I am the better
half of ohm Puri in fact while while I
came here just a while ago someone said
this is Nandita Puri so some oh hi yes
and what do you do I said I’m a writer
journalist oh and then someone said he
is OMGs wife said oh of course
so that is the that is something I’ve
been living with for the last 25 years
despite me being a writer to be known as
mrs. Om Puri Puri survived OMGs wife
whatever I of course don’t graduate one
bit and I’ve been very honored to have
shared the life with one of the living
legends in the world but today of course
I’m going to tell you my story since
dead-dead is all about storytelling I’m
a writer and I’m a storyteller and I’m
going to talk about writing what is
writing writing everyone says is the
world’s slowest profession and perhaps
the most ill paying profession in fact
when my son was small and someone asked
him he must have been about six or seven
what would you or what do you want to be
when you grow up and he said I want to
be a good character actor like my father
so the person said oh but don’t you want
to be a writer like your mother and he
said yeah in my old age selecting is
normally considered an old-age
profession
profession which is slow which is not
pay not whelping and I don’t know
whether I am qualified enough to talk on
writing because I’ve been a journalist
for more than 25 years and I am perhaps
an unqualified journalist I have not
been to a school of journalism I learned
on the job and I don’t know whether I’m
qualified to speak so I’ll talk about my
life story
so that you can figure out the young
students that how and where how to take
what to take and what to ignore I
started off I’m from Bengal Calcutta I
started out in a very middle-class
simple academic family not very rich
obviously and studies was a main main
focus I went to a boarding school and
Chandan Nagar which was a former French
colony like Pondicherry so we called it
Shannon ago and French was our second
language
after I passed out from school my father
I lost my father very early when I was
in my early teens
and my mother was the central government
our you know officer and there was not
much money to be thrown around so
obviously I went and did the regular
thing of you know studying doing my
graduation those days no one really went
into journalism people all became
lawyers engineers teachers doctors you
know the more profitable so writing and
journalism was not considered that
profitable those days anyway after my
graduation I decided to take a gap year
between my B and my MA that was the time
I ran into a newspaper office in rushed
into a newspaper office in Calcutta
called the Telegraph and I went to one
of my seniors from college who was
interning there as a sub and I said you
know I’m putting in my CV will you
please take me in as a sub and one of
the reasons for interning was they were
paying and this is in the 90s 2500
rupees per month do
teach you to train you as well as pay
you so I thought that was very exciting
my friend who was my senior and I’m ever
grateful to her she said yeah I’ll put
in your CV and you’ll get in but tell me
seriously do you want to sit in a
newspaper office and correct other
people’s for the rest of your life
because you may be a sub for the next
four years five years or do you want to
write I said I want a report I want to
write she said do you want to see her
byline then go and do a story luckily
that was a major decision first made
your decision I took in my life I said
I’m not going to intern I’m I ran
straight into the the editor’s office I
came up with some story ideas he was not
convinced he gave me some other brief
and story ideas and he said go and see
let’s see how well you can get this
together so then I went out it was a
difficult piece it was a difficult
interview but I went out did it got back
he didn’t say anything but two weeks
later was published with my byline and
that became my greed is car you know
Cheska lagertha and I wanted to continue
writing reporting writing and see my
byline
this went on luckily I learned a lot of
things on the job my editors were you
know they helped me out and they gave me
a lot of feedbacks like once being a
freelance and being too eager I took one
article and I so I mean I sold it to the
Telegraph and the same article I went
and sold it to the Statesman the two
rival papers of the city and it came out
within two or three days of each other
and the editor of The Statesman called
me and fired me he said you don’t do
things like that you either sell it
after three weeks four weeks or you
changed the whole thing you don’t you
can’t have you know the same author on
the same subject so these are the little
things I learned how to go back how to
interview those were the pre-computer
days free Wikipedia days and we were you
know hammering on an old typewriter and
despite all the difficulties one managed
one learnt then of course up in 1991-92
was before most of you were born who a
city of joy you know the role in Java
film which had Patrick Swayze who had
just won an Oscar for dirty dancing so
he was down and everyone was excited in
Calcutta every girl thought he you know
he would love to they would love to
would Patrick so I went to Meritor and I
said can I do a story on Patrick Swayze
so my editor said no way there are
others doing more qualified more senior
than you so why don’t you do something
you go and interview on puri and I said
home puri of course I’ve seen his films
and I had a lot of regards I said okay I
went I you know read up a bit about Om
Puri I had seen his films I went and
interviewed him and that ended up in one
big long interview so that’s you know
where you met and we married and then
soon after marriage ohm told me now you
have to decide do you want to continue
journalism because if you’re going to be
active journalism if you’re going to be
an active journalist you’ll never be
able to you know it’d be very difficult
you won’t be with me won’t be at home
I’m traveling all over the world and
tell me I don’t think you’ll be able to
earn the amount I earn and I said of
course five years what I earn you’ll
probably run in a month so that was the
second decision I made after the first
decision to write and not sit and you
know sub the second decision was yes I
want to be out and I want to travel with
my husband be around have a family and
things like that and I knew I wouldn’t
ever earn as much as you know an actor
and of course this went on I went all
over traveled with him he was shooting
with Jack Nicholson and Michael Douglas
and the major actors you know and Tom
Hanks and Julia Roberts so I said I was
excited I was travelling but after about
three four months I got a little tired
of just travelling and being a celebrity
wife and you know just getting out of
the hotel
you know sitting at the studio watching
shoots take after take so I decided I
called up my journal my editor and she
in fact called me and she said you’re
traveling all over the world and you’re
travelling all over India so why don’t
you write I said no no no it’s not easy
you know I’m traveling to remote places
for shooting hissing write about those
places write about the people the arts
the crafts so I said yes why not
so as I was traveling for the next two
years I found an opportunity within the
situation
I started drop writing travel pieces
travel logs so for two years I did that
then one day a very senior editor told
me hey you met Jack Nicholson you met
Michael Douglas and you met you know all
of them so why don’t you give us
interviews that’ll be like a great scoop
I said hello
the first time I met Jack Nicholson and
we were having a cup of coffee together
and like a very over enthusiastic
journalist I said can I do your
interview he said no so I said that is
the answer you get because they have the
gamut of publicists and they decide on
the questions he said who’s telling you
to go and interview them just travel
with them see them observe them and
write your viewpoint I thought this was
very nice brilliant idea without having
to take permission it was my viewpoint
so death that’s when I started writing
on various location shootings various
celebrities and then mid they approached
me one of my former editors and in
between I worked with mock dolly when he
had left the BBC and he started the
first FM radio and he called me and he
said why don’t you because I had earlier
worked with you Havana Calcutta so he’s
as an artiste so he said why don’t you
come and join us I I did but that was a
little boring because it was more a
marketing job not a creative job then I
joined of course the I joined midday and
they had a column I did a weekly column
for them on cinema called pot pourri
upon on my name of course and that
column went on for eight
nine years I wrote that column for about
eight or nine years and it was more than
just writing on cinema gossip stuff like
that it was writing in depths of cinema
the problems in our industry the problem
in European cinema in in Hollywood and
all these places so it was a quite an
eye-opener for me because as I started
writing I started reading about cinema
because films were not my subject
earlier so I wrote for about a weekly
column for about six eight six seven
years and it was quite popular
I remember one young girl coming and
telling me ma’am I take a local from
under he took Church gate every day and
I look forward every Friday when I get
to read pot pourri and that I think was
the biggest compliment among you know
others who’ve been saying it’s a very
insightful column but I was writing for
midday I was writing for dining pastor I
was a regular columnist but somewhere I
felt at the end of six seven years I was
repeating myself and I actually looked
at some of my articles and I saw oh my
god I have actually repeated myself and
that’s the time I decided that was again
another major decision in my life where
I decided I have to stop this repetition
and go on to something new and I always
wanted to be a writer so I said of
course goals are Sabich encouraged me
and said you should start writing
writing a novel because you know you
write in such a warm way so I said okay
fine so I started her writing a novel
and I took a sabbatical from journalism
and when I started writing a novel I got
confused because every time my word
limit was 500 or a thousand words and
here I had I could write for as much as
I wanted you know one lakh one lakh
fifty thousand and I was very very
confused I’d know how to start how to
you know go ahead so finally I decided
to write a collection of short stories I
thought from the pond of five hundred
thousand words I jump into a lake before
jumping in plunging into a river
so I started
writing short stories and my first
collection came out nine on nine it’s
stories of urban Indian women
the theme is urban Indian women and nine
short stories and of course I was very
happy because it was critically
acclaimed one of stories included in the
society academy of Indian writers but
after that my husband said I went back
to my novel and my husband said well you
keep writing a novel
why don’t you write my biography which
had told me ten years ago but I didn’t
want to write because I was not
confident enough to handle the biography
the story of such a a man with so much
of contribution to Indian cinema but I
said okay fine maybe a biography is a
better option than doing a novel right
now and then of course I had 16 17 years
of as I would say material gathered and
then I you know interviewed people from
all over the world all over India and
the OMGs biography unlikely hero was
published and I think it was in 2009
after that I completed my novel which
was pending for about seven years two
worlds and that is how I shifted into
writing into storytelling from being a
journalist and I started enjoying it and
after that I also wrote a screenplay for
a Bollywood film and I realized that at
the end of the day it is not the genre
which is you know you can you need not
stick to one genre that I am a
journalist I’m a columnist or I’m a
short storyteller you have to explore if
you’re a writer I also did manuscript
editing I also did you know writing for
ad agencies because writing is not the
most paying profession I want to tell
you guys that writing is not the most
paying profession it is a very slow
profession but at the same time if there
is a passion and if you want to write
there is a way you can tell
my husband always told young actors who
came to him that sir I want to be an
actor or a director he said good but he
went to the National School of Drama he
went to the film and television
Institute yet it took him 10 years to
establish himself as an actor before he
could say I’m an actor
that was our Guiseppe he came he passed
out in 76 the first break he got was 84
after that before that he taught
movement and speech so he always told
anyone have a back-up studies
cinematography you know qualify in
editing or special effects a sound so
that even if you don’t get a break as an
actor or a director you can continue to
work in at films and documentaries and
other films as I you have a
qualification so that you can bank on it
so I always say the same writing acting
the very creative of you know areas but
at the same time I don’t have a
qualification I learnt on the job
I still feel journal people who are
interested in writing whether fiction
nonfiction journalism should undergo a
certain training all actors it’s a
technic it’s a bit of technicality and a
lot of creativity and training is a must
and I also tell writers apart from that
don’t always say I want to be a writer
do have a backup be a journalist you
know do work in an ad agency so that at
least your home can keep on running
otherwise luckily for me
you have a rich spouse so because I was
fortunate enough for ohm ji to be there
and he took care of everything so that I
could put my creative energies to
writing that is one of the main things I
want to come but more than anything huh
so after this again of course I’ve just
completed my book for the book this is
on it’s on international child
trafficking and inter-country adoption
based on a true story and I’ve also
written the screenplay of it and we are
waiting for its publication
then of course there was another
decision which I had to you know take
and that was we lost OMG very tragically
in January and that is the time we
started the own pari foundation the own
Pony Foundation was launched at the
Cannes Film Festival last me and the
main purpose an objective of this
foundation was to promote young talent
to help young talented theatre students
film students young filmmakers through
the grants scholarships and fellowships
so that they can go ahead and not face
difficulties with oMG faced when he was
in the National School of Drama
he was extremely poor he started out as
a six year old working in a tea stall as
a cleaner boy to put food on the table
and even an F di when he went to the
film and television Institute it was
this is the own Puri Foundation and even
in the FT I the film and television
Institute he could barely pay his fees
through until you know his the director
then girish karnad and all helped him
out so he didn’t he never wanted any
student to face the same humiliation as
he faced and it is amazing that the man
who started out as a six year old and
cleaning a tea stall to put you know
food for the family and the man who
didn’t know where his next meal would
come from ended up being in the Oscars
the only Indian actor to be honored in
the Oscar memoriam so like whom he gave
back to society through his socially
relevant set cinema we would like to
through the ohm Puri Foundation give
back to society and also promote another
cause which was very close to OMG that
was the cause of the farmers he always
empathize with the farmers he felt they
were the backbone of the country so one
of the main causes of the foundation is
to help the farming community and
especially to educate
the children of the farmers these are
the four main objectives of the
foundation as well as you know taking
his legacy forward through schools
colleges and universities so these are
the various so during this is the long
journey I’ve been through and I’ve
learned to manipulate my way whenever
you know I learned on the job I didn’t
go have a formal training and when
something you have to learn you have to
make plans but more than anything
writing the arts is not a very money
driven or you know career driven
opportunity but at the same time you
have to have a passion I feel if you’re
a gardener you should be a very
passionate gardener you should
passionately tend to plants similarly
passion is more important money is
important money is important but to a
point to the point they give you your
luxuries I think we should always know
where to cut ourselves off where to
enjoy the money we earn where to be
happy with what we have but more than
money if you want to be an actor for the
sake of you know being in cover pages or
a car or a fancy house bungalow or you
want to be a writer just to you know
that will not help you have to first
learn to love your profession you have
to learn to love writing and then have a
backup write and manipulate your way out
don’t have a long-term plan you everyone
has a plan of course have a long-term
plan but don’t be rigid in your plans
like today when I was I came for this I
said what am I going to talk I don’t
want to preach I don’t want to
pontificate but I will tell you through
my life story so that if a bit can help
somebody good if it doesn’t it’s okay
you can look for inspiration elsewhere
but at the same time the whole idea is
to love what you do whether it’s
engineering whether it’s banking whether
it’s writing just love it just love it
don’t have rigid plans have half plans
and
times take wrists take make decisions
which may not go accordingly to the you
know the well-worn path but sometimes
you have to take a risk so that you can
achieve a lot and you can fulfill your
dreams and I’m sure if you think of
anything if you love anything
passionately you will be able to achieve
that
[Applause]
first of all and extremely humble for
being invited to this August platform by
TEDx Chet Carroll University and so made
Walia
I would like to introduce myself
I have Nandita Puri I’m a journalist
writer but most of all 25 years of my
life I have shared my life with one of
the world’s legendary actors Shri Om
Puri so most of the time I am the better
half of ohm Puri in fact while while I
came here just a while ago someone said
this is Nandita Puri so some oh hi yes
and what do you do I said I’m a writer
journalist oh and then someone said he
is OMGs wife said oh of course
so that is the that is something I’ve
been living with for the last 25 years
despite me being a writer to be known as
mrs. Om Puri Puri survived OMGs wife
whatever I of course don’t graduate one
bit and I’ve been very honored to have
shared the life with one of the living
legends in the world but today of course
I’m going to tell you my story since
dead-dead is all about storytelling I’m
a writer and I’m a storyteller and I’m
going to talk about writing what is
writing writing everyone says is the
world’s slowest profession and perhaps
the most ill paying profession in fact
when my son was small and someone asked
him he must have been about six or seven
what would you or what do you want to be
when you grow up and he said I want to
be a good character actor like my father
so the person said oh but don’t you want
to be a writer like your mother and he
said yeah in my old age selecting is
normally considered an old-age
profession
profession which is slow which is not
pay not whelping and I don’t know
whether I am qualified enough to talk on
writing because I’ve been a journalist
for more than 25 years and I am perhaps
an unqualified journalist I have not
been to a school of journalism I learned
on the job and I don’t know whether I’m
qualified to speak so I’ll talk about my
life story
so that you can figure out the young
students that how and where how to take
what to take and what to ignore I
started off I’m from Bengal Calcutta I
started out in a very middle-class
simple academic family not very rich
obviously and studies was a main main
focus I went to a boarding school and
Chandan Nagar which was a former French
colony like Pondicherry so we called it
Shannon ago and French was our second
language
after I passed out from school my father
I lost my father very early when I was
in my early teens
and my mother was the central government
our you know officer and there was not
much money to be thrown around so
obviously I went and did the regular
thing of you know studying doing my
graduation those days no one really went
into journalism people all became
lawyers engineers teachers doctors you
know the more profitable so writing and
journalism was not considered that
profitable those days anyway after my
graduation I decided to take a gap year
between my B and my MA that was the time
I ran into a newspaper office in rushed
into a newspaper office in Calcutta
called the Telegraph and I went to one
of my seniors from college who was
interning there as a sub and I said you
know I’m putting in my CV will you
please take me in as a sub and one of
the reasons for interning was they were
paying and this is in the 90s 2500
rupees per month do
teach you to train you as well as pay
you so I thought that was very exciting
my friend who was my senior and I’m ever
grateful to her she said yeah I’ll put
in your CV and you’ll get in but tell me
seriously do you want to sit in a
newspaper office and correct other
people’s for the rest of your life
because you may be a sub for the next
four years five years or do you want to
write I said I want a report I want to
write she said do you want to see her
byline then go and do a story luckily
that was a major decision first made
your decision I took in my life I said
I’m not going to intern I’m I ran
straight into the the editor’s office I
came up with some story ideas he was not
convinced he gave me some other brief
and story ideas and he said go and see
let’s see how well you can get this
together so then I went out it was a
difficult piece it was a difficult
interview but I went out did it got back
he didn’t say anything but two weeks
later was published with my byline and
that became my greed is car you know
Cheska lagertha and I wanted to continue
writing reporting writing and see my
byline
this went on luckily I learned a lot of
things on the job my editors were you
know they helped me out and they gave me
a lot of feedbacks like once being a
freelance and being too eager I took one
article and I so I mean I sold it to the
Telegraph and the same article I went
and sold it to the Statesman the two
rival papers of the city and it came out
within two or three days of each other
and the editor of The Statesman called
me and fired me he said you don’t do
things like that you either sell it
after three weeks four weeks or you
changed the whole thing you don’t you
can’t have you know the same author on
the same subject so these are the little
things I learned how to go back how to
interview those were the pre-computer
days free Wikipedia days and we were you
know hammering on an old typewriter and
despite all the difficulties one managed
one learnt then of course up in 1991-92
was before most of you were born who a
city of joy you know the role in Java
film which had Patrick Swayze who had
just won an Oscar for dirty dancing so
he was down and everyone was excited in
Calcutta every girl thought he you know
he would love to they would love to
would Patrick so I went to Meritor and I
said can I do a story on Patrick Swayze
so my editor said no way there are
others doing more qualified more senior
than you so why don’t you do something
you go and interview on puri and I said
home puri of course I’ve seen his films
and I had a lot of regards I said okay I
went I you know read up a bit about Om
Puri I had seen his films I went and
interviewed him and that ended up in one
big long interview so that’s you know
where you met and we married and then
soon after marriage ohm told me now you
have to decide do you want to continue
journalism because if you’re going to be
active journalism if you’re going to be
an active journalist you’ll never be
able to you know it’d be very difficult
you won’t be with me won’t be at home
I’m traveling all over the world and
tell me I don’t think you’ll be able to
earn the amount I earn and I said of
course five years what I earn you’ll
probably run in a month so that was the
second decision I made after the first
decision to write and not sit and you
know sub the second decision was yes I
want to be out and I want to travel with
my husband be around have a family and
things like that and I knew I wouldn’t
ever earn as much as you know an actor
and of course this went on I went all
over traveled with him he was shooting
with Jack Nicholson and Michael Douglas
and the major actors you know and Tom
Hanks and Julia Roberts so I said I was
excited I was travelling but after about
three four months I got a little tired
of just travelling and being a celebrity
wife and you know just getting out of
the hotel
you know sitting at the studio watching
shoots take after take so I decided I
called up my journal my editor and she
in fact called me and she said you’re
traveling all over the world and you’re
travelling all over India so why don’t
you write I said no no no it’s not easy
you know I’m traveling to remote places
for shooting hissing write about those
places write about the people the arts
the crafts so I said yes why not
so as I was traveling for the next two
years I found an opportunity within the
situation
I started drop writing travel pieces
travel logs so for two years I did that
then one day a very senior editor told
me hey you met Jack Nicholson you met
Michael Douglas and you met you know all
of them so why don’t you give us
interviews that’ll be like a great scoop
I said hello
the first time I met Jack Nicholson and
we were having a cup of coffee together
and like a very over enthusiastic
journalist I said can I do your
interview he said no so I said that is
the answer you get because they have the
gamut of publicists and they decide on
the questions he said who’s telling you
to go and interview them just travel
with them see them observe them and
write your viewpoint I thought this was
very nice brilliant idea without having
to take permission it was my viewpoint
so death that’s when I started writing
on various location shootings various
celebrities and then mid they approached
me one of my former editors and in
between I worked with mock dolly when he
had left the BBC and he started the
first FM radio and he called me and he
said why don’t you because I had earlier
worked with you Havana Calcutta so he’s
as an artiste so he said why don’t you
come and join us I I did but that was a
little boring because it was more a
marketing job not a creative job then I
joined of course the I joined midday and
they had a column I did a weekly column
for them on cinema called pot pourri
upon on my name of course and that
column went on for eight
nine years I wrote that column for about
eight or nine years and it was more than
just writing on cinema gossip stuff like
that it was writing in depths of cinema
the problems in our industry the problem
in European cinema in in Hollywood and
all these places so it was a quite an
eye-opener for me because as I started
writing I started reading about cinema
because films were not my subject
earlier so I wrote for about a weekly
column for about six eight six seven
years and it was quite popular
I remember one young girl coming and
telling me ma’am I take a local from
under he took Church gate every day and
I look forward every Friday when I get
to read pot pourri and that I think was
the biggest compliment among you know
others who’ve been saying it’s a very
insightful column but I was writing for
midday I was writing for dining pastor I
was a regular columnist but somewhere I
felt at the end of six seven years I was
repeating myself and I actually looked
at some of my articles and I saw oh my
god I have actually repeated myself and
that’s the time I decided that was again
another major decision in my life where
I decided I have to stop this repetition
and go on to something new and I always
wanted to be a writer so I said of
course goals are Sabich encouraged me
and said you should start writing
writing a novel because you know you
write in such a warm way so I said okay
fine so I started her writing a novel
and I took a sabbatical from journalism
and when I started writing a novel I got
confused because every time my word
limit was 500 or a thousand words and
here I had I could write for as much as
I wanted you know one lakh one lakh
fifty thousand and I was very very
confused I’d know how to start how to
you know go ahead so finally I decided
to write a collection of short stories I
thought from the pond of five hundred
thousand words I jump into a lake before
jumping in plunging into a river
so I started
writing short stories and my first
collection came out nine on nine it’s
stories of urban Indian women
the theme is urban Indian women and nine
short stories and of course I was very
happy because it was critically
acclaimed one of stories included in the
society academy of Indian writers but
after that my husband said I went back
to my novel and my husband said well you
keep writing a novel
why don’t you write my biography which
had told me ten years ago but I didn’t
want to write because I was not
confident enough to handle the biography
the story of such a a man with so much
of contribution to Indian cinema but I
said okay fine maybe a biography is a
better option than doing a novel right
now and then of course I had 16 17 years
of as I would say material gathered and
then I you know interviewed people from
all over the world all over India and
the OMGs biography unlikely hero was
published and I think it was in 2009
after that I completed my novel which
was pending for about seven years two
worlds and that is how I shifted into
writing into storytelling from being a
journalist and I started enjoying it and
after that I also wrote a screenplay for
a Bollywood film and I realized that at
the end of the day it is not the genre
which is you know you can you need not
stick to one genre that I am a
journalist I’m a columnist or I’m a
short storyteller you have to explore if
you’re a writer I also did manuscript
editing I also did you know writing for
ad agencies because writing is not the
most paying profession I want to tell
you guys that writing is not the most
paying profession it is a very slow
profession but at the same time if there
is a passion and if you want to write
there is a way you can tell
my husband always told young actors who
came to him that sir I want to be an
actor or a director he said good but he
went to the National School of Drama he
went to the film and television
Institute yet it took him 10 years to
establish himself as an actor before he
could say I’m an actor
that was our Guiseppe he came he passed
out in 76 the first break he got was 84
after that before that he taught
movement and speech so he always told
anyone have a back-up studies
cinematography you know qualify in
editing or special effects a sound so
that even if you don’t get a break as an
actor or a director you can continue to
work in at films and documentaries and
other films as I you have a
qualification so that you can bank on it
so I always say the same writing acting
the very creative of you know areas but
at the same time I don’t have a
qualification I learnt on the job
I still feel journal people who are
interested in writing whether fiction
nonfiction journalism should undergo a
certain training all actors it’s a
technic it’s a bit of technicality and a
lot of creativity and training is a must
and I also tell writers apart from that
don’t always say I want to be a writer
do have a backup be a journalist you
know do work in an ad agency so that at
least your home can keep on running
otherwise luckily for me
you have a rich spouse so because I was
fortunate enough for ohm ji to be there
and he took care of everything so that I
could put my creative energies to
writing that is one of the main things I
want to come but more than anything huh
so after this again of course I’ve just
completed my book for the book this is
on it’s on international child
trafficking and inter-country adoption
based on a true story and I’ve also
written the screenplay of it and we are
waiting for its publication
then of course there was another
decision which I had to you know take
and that was we lost OMG very tragically
in January and that is the time we
started the own pari foundation the own
Pony Foundation was launched at the
Cannes Film Festival last me and the
main purpose an objective of this
foundation was to promote young talent
to help young talented theatre students
film students young filmmakers through
the grants scholarships and fellowships
so that they can go ahead and not face
difficulties with oMG faced when he was
in the National School of Drama
he was extremely poor he started out as
a six year old working in a tea stall as
a cleaner boy to put food on the table
and even an F di when he went to the
film and television Institute it was
this is the own Puri Foundation and even
in the FT I the film and television
Institute he could barely pay his fees
through until you know his the director
then girish karnad and all helped him
out so he didn’t he never wanted any
student to face the same humiliation as
he faced and it is amazing that the man
who started out as a six year old and
cleaning a tea stall to put you know
food for the family and the man who
didn’t know where his next meal would
come from ended up being in the Oscars
the only Indian actor to be honored in
the Oscar memoriam so like whom he gave
back to society through his socially
relevant set cinema we would like to
through the ohm Puri Foundation give
back to society and also promote another
cause which was very close to OMG that
was the cause of the farmers he always
empathize with the farmers he felt they
were the backbone of the country so one
of the main causes of the foundation is
to help the farming community and
especially to educate
the children of the farmers these are
the four main objectives of the
foundation as well as you know taking
his legacy forward through schools
colleges and universities so these are
the various so during this is the long
journey I’ve been through and I’ve
learned to manipulate my way whenever
you know I learned on the job I didn’t
go have a formal training and when
something you have to learn you have to
make plans but more than anything
writing the arts is not a very money
driven or you know career driven
opportunity but at the same time you
have to have a passion I feel if you’re
a gardener you should be a very
passionate gardener you should
passionately tend to plants similarly
passion is more important money is
important money is important but to a
point to the point they give you your
luxuries I think we should always know
where to cut ourselves off where to
enjoy the money we earn where to be
happy with what we have but more than
money if you want to be an actor for the
sake of you know being in cover pages or
a car or a fancy house bungalow or you
want to be a writer just to you know
that will not help you have to first
learn to love your profession you have
to learn to love writing and then have a
backup write and manipulate your way out
don’t have a long-term plan you everyone
has a plan of course have a long-term
plan but don’t be rigid in your plans
like today when I was I came for this I
said what am I going to talk I don’t
want to preach I don’t want to
pontificate but I will tell you through
my life story so that if a bit can help
somebody good if it doesn’t it’s okay
you can look for inspiration elsewhere
but at the same time the whole idea is
to love what you do whether it’s
engineering whether it’s banking whether
it’s writing just love it just love it
don’t have rigid plans have half plans
and
times take wrists take make decisions
which may not go accordingly to the you
know the well-worn path but sometimes
you have to take a risk so that you can
achieve a lot and you can fulfill your
dreams and I’m sure if you think of
anything if you love anything
passionately you will be able to achieve
that
[Applause]
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