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Shah Rukh Khan at Yale: 'Do not be afraid to walk alone'

Last updated on: April 13, 2012 18:46 IST

On April 12, Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan

became the first Bollywood personality to be
honoured with the prestigious Chubb Fellowship
at Yale University.
Earlier in the day, Khan ran into trouble with the
US immigration authorities and was detained at a
New York airport for about two hours. However, he
did keep his date with Yale and delivered an
evocative speech on success, failure, kids and life.
We bring you the full transcript of Shah Rukh
Khan's inspring speech that he delivered as a
Fellow amidst cheering fans and students. Also
watch Khan deliver the speech here!

Good evening everyone, I'd like to thank you all for

giving me the opportunity to be here. I also want to
thank Isha for following up with the most disorganised
and incommunicative person in the world in order to fix
today's meeting with all of you. Thanks I really am
honoured and extremely happy to be here.
I have memories of being in Yale five years ago. It was
December and so damn cold that while professing love
to my leading lady and singing a Bollywood
ditty....which went something like this.....Kabhie alvida
na kehna....my mouth froze itself to death... I say death because as I inched closer to kiss her.... mouthing the words kabhi
alvida...na...my mouth and jaw just locked....like this.
So I am hoping my second outing to your wonderful university turns out differently because it would be highly embarrassing if I
said "good evening Yaleites" or "Yalers" or whatever you guys are called and got stuck at... yaaaaa....that wouldn't make for
much of a speech.
I was told not to dwell too much on my movies when I spoke to you, I am to give you an inspirational talk -- tell you stuff you can
think about when you leave this room.
That worries me, it gives me performance anxiety. Here you are, 1500 of you, hoping to hear words of wisdom from this sexy,
desirable man, who couldn't kiss a girl, last time he was in Yale because it was too cold. But I'm not that guy, I mean, I'm sexy
and desirable for sure but I'm not about to leave you anymore inspired than when you walked in here.
I read this lame joke on Google the other day (yes I pick everything up from Google, even the script of my next movie and I'm
not ashamed of it -- you can pick me up on Google too if you like!)
Anyway, the joke went like this -- a dying man, gasping for breath, desperately gestured to the priest by his side for a piece of
paper. With great effort, he then wrote a few words on it, handed it to the priest and passed away. The priest kept the paper in
his pocket and forgot all about it until the final service. Here he suddenly recalled the dead man's last scribble. Unfolding the
paper, he told the funereal congregation that he was about to read great words of inspiration to them. The piece of paper had
these words on it....
"You are standing on my oxygen tube...fool..."

I walk, I run, in the direction of my dreams

Last updated on: April 13, 2012 18:46 IST

So I am not going to be the priest tonight... instead I will tell u simple experiences of my life's journey, with simpler words...
which may not leave you inspired.... but will help u survive this life. And if you can do that... survive... happiness... creativity and
success will follow on its own... or maybe not but u will have to live this life nevertheless. Only I hope my words will give u
enough insight so that u can tell the world... hey guys you are standing on my oxygen tube... move over and let me breathe.
Journeys can be defined by age and time or even by destinations, as most often they are. But I feel it is hard for me to tell the
story of my life in those terms because the concept of time has always eluded me. The day my father died seemed longer than
my entire childhood.
The day I felt my first success seemed fleeting, hour-long, not long enough perhaps. I wondered where it went.
Even the cycle of time confounds me. I work the dark until sunrise on most days and fall asleep as the world awakens to light.
My friends call me an owl... I like to think of myself as Bat... Batman... the prince of darkness.
Age is not my forte either, I still cannot fix my own -- am I 45 or 15?... if I could... would I be romancing girls one third my age
who normally would call me "uncle".
I had so much fun collecting the action figures of my last film (called ra.one) that none of the critical reviews tanking it mattered
to me.

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As for my destination, I don't think I ever knew one. I

walk, I run, in the direction of my dreams. Things
change along the way, people change, I change, the
world changes, even my dreams change. I don't have
a place to arrive, I just keep doing what I know how to
do the best that I can do it. I'll probably end up a
deluded geriatric in a wheelchair wearing a cape and
tights, imagining my own flight out of this world, but of
course with a young girl in my arms.
So I'll tell you the story of me but I'll tell it in my own
way. In the language of my perceptions, in the things I
think matter beyond fame and success and the dyeing
of my hair. I have understood that the measure of my
life lies in the expanse of my heart's experience and
nothing else matters, if u take anything out of it good...
otherwise I can put on music and dance to my last big
hit song... have a drink... and try and practice my
kissing in the cold of Yale one more time.

'To survive, hang on to who you are inside'

Last updated on: April 13, 2012 18:46 IST

BE A FUNAMBULIST....

However I look at it, in its eventual analysis, my life

has centered around my creativity. I have assimilated
the world through creative expression and in return the
world has experienced me.
I have grown to understand that on one hand the world
will always uphold creativity as the most honest feeling
possible.
On the other hand the portents of fame (the glitz, the
glamour, the wealth) that arise from this very
recognition of creativity will always be questioned.
Why do we do that...? Because sometimes it allows us
to feel better than the creator and sometimes, it fills a
void within us that comes about by being in awe of his
creation. Either way, it enables us to quantify his
engagement with the world around him.
I am an act; my life is a testament to this duality.
George Burns said that acting is all about honesty... if
you can fake that, you've got it made.
He couldn't have defined it better. Honest and fake...
yes that's what I feel as a creative person all the time.

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Let me tell you my schizophrenia.

Creative expression comes from the deepest experience of the artist himself. A good artist cannot be separate from his
creation. Good art is honest art. A man may be an artist, a writer, a sculptor, an actor or a totem pole carver... whatever he is, if
what he creates is true to him self, it becomes a vivid testimonial to human creativity. If it lacks honesty, its entire premise is a
waste.
At the same time, and quite paradoxically, a man becomes distinct from his creation from the moment it is placed in the public
domain. It no longer even belongs to him.
So it comes from your gut...and it is put out there for others to accept it or throw it in the gutter.
Many a nights I have gone back home after receiving an award... pumped up and all happy... just to read that what I really
deserved was the golden banana for worst actor of the year...
I become heartbroken, angry and completely convinced that bananas and critics, both should have their skins peeled and fed to
the monkeys.
I momentarily lose my ability to give and close up. And here's where the trick is -- when you are in this place of despair, where
the world is staring you down into yourself. There's only one thing you can do to survive -- hang on to who you are inside. The
world will be unkind to you, it will not be able to see you. You must learn at such times, to be able to see yourself.

'It never was about the cars or houses'

Last updated on: April 13, 2012 18:46 IST

Life as a creative person is like being on a tight

rope. I begin to lose myself, in my own melodrama. It's
frustrating that I find myself living up to other people's
interpretation of what I ought to be.
And when faced with dissent or unappreciation, I start
losing my love affair with my audience. It becomes a
tight balance act... to keep doing what I do best... and
not be bothered by the reactions of people I do it for, in
the first place.
I dance harder and cartwheel longer and pirouette on
my rope. Stretched, taut, beneath my feet.
And I try not to slip... I can slide but never fall off... all
this while I have a smile on my face and signing
autographs.
All I am is a funambulist... trying to balance my action
and exterior reaction to my naked show of who I am
inside.
I start to feel like a street artist who feels his audience
is just a bunch of pausing passersby applauding out of
a mixture of curiosity... pity or even disregard.
Yet when I am playing this real life illusion out, more
often than not, my honest self is sitting in the audience,
applauding my performance while laughing heartily at
my own stupidity.
So my friends (kids?), learn to laugh at yourselves too.
Never become cynical about yourself and your life.
Becoming cynical about your life is the single most
destructive thing you can do to it.
For you have to remember....
Creativity is your gift to the world. It was never meant to be barter for anything, not even appreciation. You have to dig deep, I
do it while drinking vodka after vodka... listening to self pitying, loser songs... you should find a less destructive way... however
you do it... but you have to believe... that you create only because this is the biggest gift you have to give to your world. Maybe
that's we even say God is a creator.
It's not about the cars or houses...it never was... those are peripherals. They never come about because of your talent or your
creative outpourings... they come out of a business that people around you do. Those people are in the business of barter -- not
you. Yours is the business of giving and learning. Your work of art may never be complete in your lifetime. Your fulfillment will
always lie in your creative expression not in its products.

'Do not be afraid to defy conventions'

Last updated on: April 13, 2012 18:46 IST

So look beyond the brickbats... the critics and know within you that you always have a choice between barter and creation.
Life as a creator will always be a tight rope. So...
Do not try to feed your stomach with creativity, it is food for your soul, not your stomach.

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Do not be afraid to defy conventions.

Do not be afraid to destroy systems that kill art and
your souls.
Do not be afraid to be hungry.
Do not be afraid to walk alone if necessary. Because
on a tightrope we all walk alone. Remember....if you
are a creator you are a funambulist and not very many
people know that word...let alone be it.
Love your punching bags
Just as my life has centered around creativity, like
every fellow human being's, it has also centered
around the wish to find happiness. Your age is the age
when we most confuse happiness with gratification so I
will say quite plainly: if you are smart, if you want to
survive life's relentless onslaught of challenges, you
will sooner or later understand that the things that
made you happy ten years ago will end up being the
ones that make you happy when you hit the geriatric
superhero stage. Kids...start collecting your action
figures, now!
I have everything I could have aspired for at your age, I have success, I have fame, I have wealth and I have three
playstations... one for the house... one for shootings and one just because I can have it. But none of these have any
consequence to my happiness, the only thing that does is the love of my children.
You don't have children (I hope), but you have parents, you have people you love and nothing in this world of everything's,
means more than that.
Happiness, in other words, lies in the things you will never be able to count.
To me, it is no more than cuddling up to my kids and watching I Carly or the Family Guy. Well most of the time anyway, the
other day my son and I stumbled upon the Kamasutra on the net and I can tell you that experience was not very happy. He's 14
and he knew more about it than I did.
I want you to understand this business of happiness well because I know at one level, all parents are the actually the same...
some look sterner... some are less fun, some are embarrassingly weird but for each parent the bottom and the top line of their
lives is this- you kids are their greatest source of happiness.

'Your parents are your best friends'

Last updated on: April 13, 2012 18:46 IST

Parents want nothing in return... just that you respect

that feeling... that's all.
Take my own children. I believe that girls really are
from planet Venus....my girl comes from a place of
...gentleness...caring...love.. Intelligence and all things
beautiful.
My boy comes from 'I am too good to be your kid'
planet. Guys are obnoxious... I am not being sexist but
that's the truth.
I was in London shooting and missing my kids. Being
from the boring school of people who send writings to
their kids in the hope of making them better human
beings, I sent my daughter this verse from a poem by
e.e.cummings:
i do not know what it is about you that
closes and opens;
only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses,
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands
I instantly received this text message in return... I love it papa. It is beautiful. I am going to write it in my secret diary with the
secret lock and keep it in my secret hiding place, under the Katy Perry and Lady gaga poster. I love you and miss you. I am too
excited...watching Hunger Games tonight.
Feeling bad that I hadn't texted something meaningful to my darling son I sent him something I had read too....
How are you my son I wrote....I miss you. Do you know...a boy is someone that a mother loves the most. Little girls hate him.
He is truth with dirt on its face...beauty with a cut on its finger...wisdom with smell in its hair...and hope of the future with a frog

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in its pocket. I love you....

He replied back with one letter of the alphabet. One measly Y ...to my emotional fatherly outpourings. That and an emoticon. I
wanted to fly to Mumbai and hang him upside down till he looked liked a silly red faced emoticon himself.
But I didn't...instead I just smiled.
Both replies made me feel love for my kids. Whatever they do...as long as they are happy it makes me happy.
So I speak to you as a parent of two very weird kids.... Whatever you do...whichever mistake you make...however you react to
them....your parents are your best friends.
They might be boring...silly or stern at times. Maybe some of you are embarrassed of yours, I know my kids are of me... but if
ever any of you are in trouble... of any kind... the best friends you can always trust to watch your backs are your parents. They
will always come good.

'You don't acquire wisdom from success'

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I lost my parents very early in my life... and I miss

them dearly. So all of you who still have yours... don't
listen to them... fool them if you must... a bit of lying is
also welcome... but make sure you cherish what you
have because when you don't have them... like me...
you really miss someone to be rude to... someone to
you can take for granted... someone to say and do
whatever you wish with... you miss the comfort of
being loved unconditionally. I call parents unconditional
and forgiving punching bags...who feel happiest when
they get bashed up by their kids.
If you want to survive life, its best to begin to respect
the gift of love right now.
As children, your first teachers of this acceptance are
your parents. If you are unable to accept the love they
give you, in whatever form it arrives (even if it is a tight
slap across your face), then when you become a
parent, you will end up having to learn this lesson
somewhat more harshly from teachers you give birth
to... and learning Kamasutra from my son is a not a
great idea u would agree. Incidentally he studies in a
school that Isha's mom runs in India....I have to say
ma'm your syllabus is quite different from the one I had
when I was in school.
A fiendish friend called failure
Whether I like it or not, my life has also been in constant play with what the world calls "Success".
Success is a wonderful thing, but it tends not to be the sort of experience that we learn from. We enjoy it; perhaps we even
deserve it. But we don't acquire wisdom from it. And maybe that's why it cannot be passed on either...me being successful does
not mean my children will also be so...how much ever I teach them what I did in my life and even if they follow it to the letter.
So I feel that talking about how to become successful is a waste of time...instead let me tell you very honestly...whatever
happened to me happened because I have always been terrified of failure. I don't want as much to succeed as much as I don't
want to fail. I come from a very normal lower middle class family. I saw a lot of failure. My father was a beautiful man and the
most successful failure in the world. My mother also failed to stay with me long enough for her to see me become a movie star.
We were quite poor actually and let me tell you...poverty is not an ennobling experience at all. Poverty entails fear and stress
and sometimes depression. I watched my parents go through this several times.

'Repeated failure has taught me to stop pretending'

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At an early age after my parents died... I equated poverty with failure. I just didn't want to be poor. So when I got a chance to
act in films it wasn't out of any creative desire that I did so... it was purely out of the fear of failure and poverty. Most of the films
I signed were discards of better known actors and the producers could not find anyone else to do them. I did them all to make
sure that I was working to avoid unemployment. The timing or something was right, and that made them happen. I became a
big star... which means sometimes our success is not the direct result of our actions... Success just happens. Really. It is
accidental and we take credit for it... I know I have done this even out of embarrassment sometimes.
So I believe the true path to success is through the fear of failure. If you aren't scared enough of failing, you are unlikely to
succeed. It's not pleasant to fail, its tough. All of us experience it. You will too if you haven't already. Use it to succeed.

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Here's how I have done so:

Firstly, it's not the absence of failure that makes you a
success...it is your response to failure that actually
helps to buffer the reverses that you experience. I
personally have one response to failure...
pragmatism... a recognition and belief that if one
approach does not work...then the other will or might.
Failure also gives me an incentive to greater exertion...
harder work...which invariably leads to later success in
most cases.
Repeated failure has taught me to stop pretending I
am someone else. Its given me the clarity to stick to
the things that really matter to me instead of distracting
me from my core...
Failure also gets you to find...who your real friends are.
The true strength of your relationships only gets tested
in the face of strong adversity.
Overcoming some of my failures has made me
discover that I have a strong will...and more discipline
than I suspected. It has helped me have confidence in
my ability to survive.

'Failure is your fiendish friend'

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Failure is an amazing teacher...There is a well-known story of a bank president who was asked the secret of his success.
"right decisions," he replied. "how do you get to know how to make right decisions?" came the follow-up question. "experience,"
was the answer. "well, how do you get experience?" asked his interrogator. "wrong decisions," he replied.
You have to know and learn that life is a not just a check list of acquisitions, attainments and fulfillments, your qualifications and
CVs don't really matter. Instead life is difficult and complicated... and beyond anyone's control. The humility to know this will
help you survive its vicissitudes.
But I don't want to sound dark. My hope for all of you is that you retain a lifelong love of learning, that you never cease to dream
exciting and inspiring dreams, and when you fail, you fail well enough to succeed the next time. Don't be afraid of being afraid,
be afraid of not facing your fears and failures.
In the end I will read out a text message I got today from my kid
Papa...Chuck Norris has trained his dog to pick up its own poop...because Chuck Norris will not take st from anyone....
So remember you are fortunate enough to be a funambulist....who has an amazing set of punching bags, cherish them... and
failure is your fiendish friend... keep him close... and don't take no st from anybody.
Bless you all and thanks for listening.
Don't miss:
Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement address
Viswanathan Anand on learning from chess
Life's lessons from N Narayana Murthy

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