Multiple slashes

This post is dedicated to you, my friend, and to my belief that you could be as big in cricket as you are in software design today.

I was reading a series of brilliantly written articles on 'media law and ethics' when I spotted a familiar-sounding name in the list of writers.

Jim Carey.

As soon as I realised that the surname was one 'r' short of the celebrity actor's, I was laughing to myself.

"Yeah right, like that Jim Carrey can write such articles on 'media law and ethics'!"

And then the very next moment, I went "Why not??"

Why do we find it so difficult to believe that one guy who's known for something because he's really good at it, can't be known for something else he's perhaps also very good at?

If Leonardo da Vinci could be a renowned scientist, artist, sculptor, inventor, engineer, architect, musician, mathematician, and so on (the sheer number of commas in the sentence is mind-boggling), why can't a Jim Carrey be a comedy actor who is also a legal guru with brilliant articles on Media law and ethics to his credit?

Why do people stick to only one thing they are good at, even though they know there are many other things they want to do? Is it lack of time? Is it laziness? Or is it the hunger to be so good at that one thing that we fail to recognise the possibility that we can be equally good at other things too, and just put all our energy and passion into that one thing?

Just like celebrities, most of the time, we're content being very good at that one thing we do. As long as we do what we do so well that we're celebrities in at least Domains A and B of human interaction.

Domain A consists of just us. There's no one else in there. It is a domain where we're not just good, but we're the best. We're the best in the domain. We're the celebrity. No one in that domain can do the stuff as well as we can.

Once we have achieved that status in Domain A, we start eyeing Domain B. Domain B is our closest circle, our friends and family. Within this domain, we're all kind of 'mini-celebrities'. And each one of the mini-celebrity knows which one's the best at something, within the domain, defined by terms we use such as 'bond' ("She's a bond at Java", "he's a bond at cooking" and so on).

Then comes domain C, the world around us. Where we get lost in the crowd of a gazillion faces. Where, forget being a celebrity, most of the people in our domain don't even know we exist. And it's the ones who can shine in Domain C who become celebrities. It could be luck, it could be talent. But truth is - most of the people in Domain C know them. Because of that one talent they have, which they have honed until it made them shine above the rest. Made others in Domain C acknowledge their prowess. These celebrities also had their Domains A and B, but now the first two domains don't matter too much now, because they're visible in the largest domain.

That's for celebrities. What about us, common ordinary people, happy in their domains? Glad to have that one thing we are good at? Devoting most of our time and energy in being the best at only one thing (and some of us can't even manage that). Do we care that there is something else we could have excelled at? I'm not talking merely of the things that we do on the side. We all cook a little, sing a little, dance a little, paint a little. I'm talking about removing the things from the side, and putting them centrestage, along with your primary talent or skill. Some people are, of course, happy doing that one thing, and giving it their all. But there are many people I know would like to take their other talents further, but they are so bogged down by undefined, unexplained phenomena, they just play it safe and classify them as 'hobbies'.

We just don't do it. Even though we want to, we don't. Why? Why do we assume that we can only be brilliant at that one thing, and be known in any of the domains for only that one thing?

Why are there no more Kishore Kumars? Someone who was always introduced not just as an excellent singer or an excellent actor, but as both.

Kishore Kumar. Singer-slash-actor.

Where are the people like that today? Those who could proudly pull off the multiple slashes after their name? Where everything on each side of the slash was significant, important enough to be mentioned every time the person was mentioned, and not just as "also does blah blah".

Where are such people in the modern age?

They are surely hiding amongst us? They are surely hiding within us?

How many commas would you give yourself?

And how many commas would you want to give yourself?