BookEducation – Unfinished

By Dr. Shruti Shankar Gaur

It had been a long day & I was completely drained. I was in no mood to open my laptop or to continue the book, Homo Deus, on which I had been stuck for months. I wanted to read something light, something refreshing and that’s when I was reminded of ‘Unfinished’. It was past ten. I sneaked into my teenage daughter’s room and quickly picked the book from her bedside.

Here I was, with the stolen copy of Unfinished in my hand (I knew I had committed a crime, for my daughter devoured her books). Teenagers, you know, well oh that’s the story for some other day. Read to know what I loved, reading Priyanka Chopra’s Unfinished…..

Unfinished

A Memoir by Priyanka Chopra Jonas

COURAGE! A single word that can define the amazing life story of Priyanka Chopra Jonas.

Courage to dream

Courage to dream big

Courage to pursue dreams

Courage to persevere

Courage to hang on till the end

Courage to be fearless

Why do I say so? Why do I restrict PCJ in a single word? Well, if you ask me:

Talent- Sure she has tons but there are million others as or more talented in the world

Genius- Of course she is a gem but there have been many a genius gone wasted

I have always believed & Unfinished reinforced my thoughts: what makes a person extraordinary from being ordinary is determination, dedication, authenticity, confidence & courage in the reverse order and PCJ sure have optimum level of all these!

Born in 80’s and growing up in 90’s India ‘Unfinished’ was exhilarating & a trip down the memory lane. PCJ is candid in her memoir and narrates her roller coaster life journey in a simple smooth manner as if it was a piece of cake. (On the contrary her life highlights ‘I am possible’ in the ‘Impossible’).

Unfinished take away:

1. Parenting tips: This may sound strange but reading ‘Unfinished’ reiterated the parent I have to be. More than often, we realise or not, its what we tell our children or our parents have told us knowingly or unknowingly that becomes the inner voice in the form of beliefs, fear, the way we perceive life & the world. This inner voice navigates us throughout our life & it takes a lifetime to break the pattern. 

Priyanka’s vision for herself was outsmarted by her parents & especially her mother’s vision for her. You don’t become ‘Miss World’ at eighteen just like that!

Also, as adult it becomes utmost important that we provide a happy & loving nurturing space to our children, create an environment of honesty & integrity which eventually shall pave the way ahead for them. Life is always just. You get what you deserve, nothing less or more and hard work is never ever wasted.

• When life gives you lemons, make lemonade:

               PCJ definitely made exotic lemonades that the whole world gobbled! Can there be a life                 without challenges? I don’t think so. It’s the way we handle them that demarcates the     success & failure. Luck is created by sweat & brow, every moment of everyday. I am reminded the lines form one of my favourite poems:

                She worked by day, & toiled by night

                She gave up play, & some delight

                And when she won, wo/men called it LUCK

• Shut down the noise: This is a rare gift & PC had it as a child & honed it all these years. Believe me, in each one’s life there is so much happening at the same time which absorbs & at times sucks our attention & energy. To be able to consciously shutdown the unsolicited noise in brain and focus all your energy at one point for the miracles to happen, ya that’s a gift. Not everyone is able to do that. It requires lots of effort & training. Common man is in a vicious loop of thoughts & patterns.

• The art of stepping up & stepping down: We must learn to own responsibility of everything in our life. PC has been in people’s eye since seventeen, where one is scrutinised every moment and equation varies from second to second. The world may crown you a queen one second & the very next moment might throw you into deep dungeons. Thus, it becomes important for one’s sanity to be wise enough to pick battles, to stand up & shut everyone or to stand up & shut the door.

I had a gala time reading Unfinished, which I finished within a day. My daughter caught me red-handed & instead of being angry (which was expected of her), she was curious. Well, it was the best time for my ‘Pravachan’ (the term my daughters have coined for me. ‘Pravachans’ can be operationally defined at Gaur’s household as the background scores that mothers blabber to their children all day long, knowing well that they aren’t paying any heed to it but moms being smart enough to understand that ears have no doors so in any case pravachan’s do reach the children’s ear & become their inner voice & a protective shield in the tough/challenging times.) Lucky you because here’s my ‘pravachan’ issued in public interest:

“My darling, I am really happy you asked me. (I could see my daughter frowning, because she called for it😉)

I value self-made people.

I respect person of integrity

I love authenticity

I am a big fan of people for whom ‘work is worship’

And Priyanka Chopra definitely stands for all this. Also, when you read ‘Unfinished’ you will not find what I am telling you now. (My daughter literally wanted to run away)

In the book her life is portrayed as if it accidentally happened, she did work hard but she was the right person at the right place. That is for the outer world to perceive.

What I can vouch is that she couldn’t have achieved (for that matter no one could achieve greatness) until every cytoplasm, every nucleus, every mitochondrion, every ribosome, every endoplasmic reticulum………. in every cell of her body believed, focussed & worked singularly as one aligned entity to making her dreams come true. My dear child, believe me it requires a hell lot of energy. It is a difficult & rare feet. If you are able to tune into it, the world is at your feet & life becomes a miracle.” I don’t know how much she understood. All I know is my otherwise attention deficit teenager was listening intently. Oh! I give such nice pravachans. 😊