Leafing through the pages of a book, Sonu Niigaam looks up and says, “This is what changed my life forever.” Authored by Richard Carlson, the title reads: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff ... and it’s all small stuff.
Sonu recounts the eve of his 30th birthday, which he celebrated at the Miami airport, “I decided to gift myself something. I went to a bookshop and approached the lady at the paying counter with three books that I’d chosen. ‘Nice choice,’ she said, ‘but you’ve got to try this one’, and handed me this book by Carlson. ‘I’m not getting an extra cut on this one. It’s truly brilliant!’ she said. The three-and-a-half hour-long flight that followed reaffirmed all that I had known but had hesitated to believe. While reading this book, whenever I’d pause with a question, the answer would be right there in the following pages.”
Aage se right
Sonu admits that as a kid, he would often observe others behave a certain way and would wonder why he acted differently. He says, “These questions remained unanswered and childhood just passed me by. Born in a typical lower middle class family, we started keeping domestic help at home only 1993 onwards. I grew up saying thank you to anyone who would take my food plate away or offer to iron my clothes. From washing my own undergarments to picking up the utensils I ate in, I had always led my life a certain away. Some of my friends found it funny and I started questioning my habits, until decades later, I chanced upon this book. It didn’t teach me how to treat my help as equals; it taught me to trust my own opinions. In one chapter, the author talks of sweeping the streets one fine morning, just to see what it felt like. This book redefined my naive definition of ‘being cool’.”
As good as it gets
As for added advantages, the book seems to have worked wonders on Sonu’s temper too. He says, “While trying to become a singer, I encountered some of the worst people who tried to bully me, pull me down by calling me a ‘baccha’ in the industry, and the result was extreme anger and frustration. A chapter in this book told me how to picture things differently. The trick is to look at the person who you’re angry with as though he/she were an infant. When you picture this, you realise how he too must have gone crying to his mother on being bullied by someone in school. The anger vanishes instantly. You’re automatically ‘above’ him and that is an immense source of confidence.” Sonu claims to have become a calmer person now. Earlier, things would affect him easily and would make him temperamental. He says, “Now, I’ve actually started driving my car not to reach from point A to point B but to enjoy the ride itself, despite the Mumbai traffic. Think about it. If you are not in a hurry, why treat every drive of your life as an ordeal?”
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