Sohrab Khandelwal
God has given us all one thing in common, ‘time’. We all have congruent proportion of time and equal share of opportunities. It all depends upon how we as individuals make use of it and follow a pathway to enrich that cake with a cherry on the top. Time and hard work are two permanent assets which no one has the ability to take away and you can liquidate it all at your own pace. This time we bring to you the story of a person who stands by all these aspects; Mr. Sohrab Khandelwal.
Sohrab is a qualified software engineer and today he is known for his contribution in the field of acting, filmmaking, and storytelling. He has directed a well-known film “Que Sera Sera” and is currently supporting as well as documenting ‘The Farmer’s Protest’. Sohrab says, “one should dedicate the time to do what one loves and excel in it, other things in life will automatically get balanced”.
When asked about his journey, Sohrab mentioned the importance and need of communication. He says, “every artist has a story to tell, he just needs to understand how to communicate”. Since his childhood, he has been a voracious reader. When one is reading a book, they are interacting with the mind of the author. If one stops listening, they will fail to understand what the person in front wishes for. It is often said, ‘if you surround yourself with average people, as an outcome you will become average. If you surround yourself with great people you will be one of them one day too’. But not everyone gets that golden opportunity to be surrounded by great people. Sohrab says, “surround yourself with great books, it will lead you to be a better person”. That is where Sohrab started an initiative of sharing his habit of reading with others. The initiative ‘1-minute book review’ by Sohrab which has further encouraged many people over the social media platform to accommodate the habit of reading. Especially in this time of pandemic when you can’t surround yourself with great people, you should divert to surrounding yourself with great books.
Sohrab was 9 years old when he first went on stage and he has been acting since then. While exploring the fields of mimicry and theatre, Sohrab never forgot the importance of education. He completed his degree in software engineering but he knew that his heart always lied where there was acting.
He took a job in Pune, where he realized that if he kept on working as a regular software engineer, he won't be happy as his contentment was derivative of some other field and that’s where he decided to make a shift. Many people said if not engineering try something else but not acting, as it is very unpredictable. He says, “if I were to categorise the barriers, it would be a limited point of view. That’s the only barrier that comes in your way.” Sometimes distraction comes from within and sometimes from others. The best thing to do is to ignore all the outside noise and listen to the voice within. His passion for acting took him to Bombay, where he didn't know anyone. There were times where the casting directors used to reject him on his face saying ‘you are not fit for this character’. He mentions that everyone in this field faces a lot of rejections and barriers. Many of them get lonely and follow depression. People in this field are very competitive and entering here you also tend to get competitive. It was one time where he got to be a part of a project where the team went to Dubai and conducted the shoot but the film never met the reality and actuality of a screen. In this industry, there are hundreds of films made but only a few releases and even fewer comes out with flying colors. Sohrab says, “all the time we think about finding the next stop, the next project, the next work, and in this process, we stop enjoying life”. The truth is, there is nothing and no one to measure the amount of work you are doing. You just need to do what you love. Even while conducting the work you love; you are going to face certain challenges and there are going to be shortcomings. Believe in yourself that you can do it, and you will have the motivation to do it. For Sohrab, the faith in spirituality helped him overcome his barriers.
Sohrab says over this pandemic of Covid-19, there are a lot of pandemics one faces in his/her lifetime. There are personal disasters people go through. And these ups and downs in life taught him to live with himself. He says, “no one ever teaches us to live with ourselves, which is very important at this time”. During this pandemic, he dedicated his time to work more on himself and on the things he loves. He not only practiced his guitar & singing but also took time to cherish and explore himself.
He says, “we all have the same amount of time, and what’s important is how me make use of it. sometimes I think I have wasted a lot of my time.. but then later your realise it’s a part of the process.” Some of us indeed like to party, chit chat, hang out with people but at the end of the day we don’t remember every moment of that. But we remember the time which we dedicate for our productiveness. The problem with this generation is not that they don’t know anything, they are very smart than the previous one. And the next generation will be smarter than this generation. That is how evolution and time works. But right now, the fact is that there are more distractions than the previous generation faced. There are a few things that this pandemic helped Sohrab to understand specially that we are all addicted to our phones. It is hard to accept but it is the truth. Some are less addicted and some are more but no one is not influenced by this addiction. He mentioned that to write his book he used to keep his phone in the other room to avoid distraction. He gave us a tip to turn off the notifications of the phone so that we don’t pick it up every time it vibrates.
In 2019 he understood the meaning of the term ‘hard work’. Many people fail to understand that hard work is not working 24*7, it's about consistency and regularity in work. In today’s world with so many distractions, one has to inherit the skill of ignoring the distraction in order to focus on work. In the option of choosing between hard work or smart work, one should understand the gateway is doing the hard work smartly, as there are no shortcuts to anything. Even if there are for some, one will never succeed following them.
The most important thing is to find out what you love to do. If you are not happy at your work, other things including relationships and health are going to suck. But if you are happy at your work, everything is going to fall in place on its own. When we do something with our heart, it gives us confidence
Ask yourself ‘what do you love to do?’. Some people say they love to watch Netflix. Sohrab says that if you watch Netflix for 5 days, on the 6th day you will be unhappy. The true question is ‘how to find what we love?’. Each one of us know what we love to do but rarely we listen to our heart.
Follow this simple procedure and ask yourself these four questions,
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What do I want in life? - this is the most important question which people forget to ask themselves.
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How will I feel when I will get what I want? - after knowing the feeling, you will be self-motivated
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What all do I require to do what I want?
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What are the stupid things that I am doing every day that’s stopping me from where I want to be ?
Try to pen down your thoughts, it simplifies many things. People often say they will do what they love after retirement but how do you know that you are going to live that long?
Sohrab says, “clarity in life is very important and when I had it, I became free”. Today Sohrab has a pretty good amount of contribution in the field of entertainment and is the founder of Panther Films as well as Imagine Films.
- Team SATYAVACHAN
Find Sohrab on the following Social Platforms: