The perils of a wannabe multi-hyphenate

I was flipping through the pages of a 2021 edition of Vogue, when I stumbled upon this article on 'masters of none'.  A familiar looking face, somewhat of a fusion between Charlie Cox and Pankaj Tripathi, caught my eye. It was Zohran Mamdani, the rapper turned politician. Yep, it was not so far away in the world of 2021's when our newfound poster-child of Indian pluralism, American activism and South African multiculturalism, was quoting about Diljeet Dosanjh. You read that right! Mr Cardamom, or as he was known back in his early days in the NYC music scene, was getting inspired from Mr Dosanjh's 'Do You Know', so much that he had planned on writing his very own version of it, titled 'Did You Vote'.

Unbelievable, I thought. How can people, or more like, some very few people take career U turns in their lives as successfully as Mr Mamdani did. All these stories hit your truly home like nothing else had in a long while. And ardent readers like yourself could guess that this was the very reason that provoked me to finally pick up the pen, rather tap that darn keyboard to share a rambling in what had been a full year and 339 days.

Now in all these 32 years of my being, I have been, and to be honest, consciously pursued to be, a jack of all trades, which rightfully led me to being a 'master of none'. What this ends up giving you, is a consistent feeling of being out of place. You connect to a lot of things, but you feel like you don't truly belong to any. However, reading all these 'success' stories, not taking the liberty to announce one on Mr Mamdani's incumbent mayoralty, I feel the but obvious. Is it time for me to embrace my averageness?

I guess what I have come to realize, and not just as a flash of enlightenment from reading that Vogue article, is that the difference between a successful multi-hyphenate over a wannabe, is that the former focuses on deliverables. They may connect to many things overall, but they choose to pursue one, deeply, passionately, in an all-consuming way at a time. And try their best to nail it, for the lack of a better phrase. And I believe this starts with accepting the chaos of their minds and the differences in their being.

What I also know, is that I really don't have to tread across the seven seas to find these stories. Because when I think of my late grandfather, a PHD in mathematics, a published author, a passionate flute player, an ever-learning polyglot and a committed local samaritan, I can find the true meaning of being, what one may call, jack of many trades and a master of one. I agree that sounds like a total contradiction to the very idea of being a multi-hyphenate, but it's truly the pursuit of being a master of one, at a time, and actively pursuing intelligent recreation in the between, that built these lives and brought those ambitious goals to reality. After all, growing up I had seen Dadaji ask about my raga practice and my academic life in the same breath. And that is the spirit, I hope to carry with me as I navigate through this balancing act of a wannabe multi-hyphenate life.

But why was I flipping through a 2021 Vogue in the first place, if you may ask? Well, let me just leave with this picture, and say this is how I look on 'kwikpic.in'. Aspirational, right?





XOXO,
-T

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