A speaker recalls meeting the Big Show in an elevator and realizing the wrestler's real self differed from his famous persona. He argues that people are assigned roles by God—son, daughter, spouse—and that deeds, not appearance or fame, define who you are. History remembers actions.
I salute the God within you. As a child, I would sit in front of the television and I would watch wrestling. And I want you to imagine the mind of a child when I would watch wrestling, the magic, the attitude, the whole persona that these Wrestlers would create— every wrestler like The Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin, they all had a certain panache towards them. And everyone would come and they would display a certain characteristics, and I would just look with awe-struck. I would look at the magic and I would be just surprised at these characters. Out of them, my favorite character was Big Show. He was a huge giant, 7-foot. He weighed a lot, and when he would come, he would walk in a certain manner. He would move his shoulders, and he had this attitude. Then he would come on the ring, and he won't cross the bars. He would climb over them, showing his strength over his opponent. And then he would just climb on top, and he would take his hand up, and everybody would cheer. And though I would be sitting in India, thousands and thousands of miles away, I could hear the sound and I could feel as if he was in front of me. The attitude, it was phenomenal. And I used to think that this is how somewhere Big Show is. And even when he's going to the supermarket, the moment he goes to the cashier, he just doesn't put his apple down on the checking counter. He takes the apple and he goes like this, "Ahhh, apple!" And that was my imagination. What can you expect from a child? Many years passed, and a few months back, I remember I went into an elevator in Canada, and you won't believe, there I saw Big Show standing. I was ecstatic, elated that my childhood hero is in front of me, and I waited that now he would do some gesture like he used to do on TV screen. But you won't believe, in reality he was a very kind man. He was a very gentle man. He walked normally. He smiled when somebody smiled. He had a very good voice, not like the voice he used to portray on screen. And when I asked him, can I have a picture, very gently he allowed me to take a photograph. And it left me happy, but perplexed because I realized that I did not like Big Show the man. I like Big Show the character. So much so that I did not even know the name, the real name of Big Show. And I want you to just think that what is the real name of Khaleesi? What is the real name of Ross or Rachel or Monica or Chandler? All the characters that you love So, so, so very much. And you will realize one thing, that in reality you don't know the people, you know the character that they play, and you fall in love with that character. One person will say, I love Salman Khan. One person will say, I love Shah Rukh Khan. But that is not the truth. You don't love the people, you love the character that Shah Rukh Khan plays when he is going after Simran to Punjab and Raj is sitting on the train and Simran is running behind Raj and Amrish Puri is saying, 'Jaa Simran, jee le apni zindagi,' and you become elated, ecstatic over how passionately somebody plays their character. My point is passion. Even God has given you some characters, characters that you are playing in your life. Through the design of God, you are somebody's son, daughter, wife, husband, brother, sister. And now the fact is, how well will we embrace the characters that have been given to us? Because we can't act entitled. We can't just say to people that, 'Respect me because I am your father.' What is the effort that we are putting in giving our performance? Because you love somebody based on how well they perform the role given by God. And today I want you to introspect. How well are you playing your roles? Because based on your performance, God will decide if you deserve an Oscar, an applause, or a retake. So that is my message to you. In the end, remember, people don't remember the person, people remember the deeds. People don't remember the face. You don't know what Alexander the Great looked like, You don't know what Raja Ashok looked like. You don't know the face of Ranjit Singh Khanna. You know the deeds. In the same manner, if every day you are putting so much of effort on your physical beauty, you're putting so much of effort on your clothes, on your makeup, on your hair, on your body, again remember, all this will fade. The charm of a character is not on his looks, but the deeds and the performance. So remember, give a good performance. Bless you. Om Shivaay.
