By Kuslum Mustafa, TwoCircles.net,
Lucknow: Actor Farooq Shaikh is a born charmer. He continues to be so even at 60 plus. But unlike most of the Bollywood stars whose charm ceases the moment they open their mouth, Farooq’s personality flowers up more whenever he is addressing a crowd. He was at his vocal best at the valedictory function of the 2-day Uttar Pradesh Media schools summit organized by the Amity school of communication, Lucknow, in collaboration with UNICEF recently.
Known for his powerful portrayal in films like Garam Hawa, Chupke Chupke and also as the popular host of television’s powerful show ‘jeena isi ka naam hai Farooq’s interaction with the media students and faculty was smooth, engrossing, in one word mesmerizing. Without sounding preachy or dishonest the actor urged the future media professionals to realize that they have chosen for themselves a ‘vocation’ and not just a profession. He asked them to treat their work as sacred and pious as it was of immense value and relevance to society. Farooq asked the future journalists to work with a passion towards their mission.
Accepting that these are difficult times we are living in and values and honesty do not mean much the actor bemoaned the deterioration in morals and values. He said he is convinced that if a man of high moral values like Mahatma Gandhi were to contest elections in these times he would lose. Despite such a bleak scenario Farooq said that the young should not deter from practicing the right values. Living with your morals fills the soul with richness that money cannot buy. “A big bank balance is certainly not proportional to huge bank balance of happiness.” Farooq said.
Farooq Shaikh
He said it makes me sad that today’s youth has just actors and cricketers as their role models. He urged the youth to think carefully before emulating anyone blindly. “A good cricketer may not have many human attributes,” he pointed out. Wrong values, he said, will certainly lead to wrong foundations and results in children going up into dissatisfied human beings.
Commenting on the spurt of suicides among the young people Farooq said this should make us think about what is going wrong with our society, with our upbringing that is driving our youth to take such extreme steps.
“Certainly youth is not the age for putting an end to life. It is not at all the age for losing all hope for the future, of running away from life. If this happens it shows that there is something wrong in the system and it needs to be looked into deeply,” said Farooq.
Blaming his own generation for not being able to sustain the great cultural values handed over by the generation that won us freedom, he urged the present generation not to feel repentant like his generation when they reach his age.
When a media student asked him how to cope with a difficult editor pat came the reply, “Do not treat your boss, editors like God. Remember you can change your editor anytime but you cannot change your God,” he said amidst thunderous clapping.
“Anything gained at the cost of your conscience is not a good bargain. Try to fight the crooked system. Become the change,” he advised. Mahatma Gandhi once told a reporter “My life is my message.” Wish we could all say it.
Farooq also had a great piece of advice for the parents. He said children are like sponges that absorb everything. It is therefore important that parents and all elders leave good examples that they can soak-up from our lives.
In his criticism of the mushrooming of the television channels and the sub-standard fare that they are churning out, Farooq said that these channels are a big assault on our emotions. He said but while he can understand the compulsions of these channels driven as they are by market forces and competition he failed to understand what drives parents of kids to forget all their responsibility and hand over their innocent kids to be used as and how by these channels.