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The Best Thing About
You is You
In his maiden book, Kher makes an extra effort to ensure that it gets potential readers’ attention. Big names have been associated with The Best Thing About You is You. Amitabh Bachchan released the book in Mumbai, while MP and writer Shashi Tharoor did so at the Jaipur Literary Festival. If that were not enough, Kher had Tarun Gogoi, Assam Chief Minister do the honours in Guwahati. Thanks to the celebrity names (not the least that of the author’s) associated with it, the book has already received a lot of fanfare. It’s a well-designed book with landscape pictures to break the possible monotony that words may bring. Some trellises that have been put in every page could have been avoided though. Unlike most actors who choose to write an autobiography or commission a biography, Kher decided to turn philosopher. The book is based on Kher’s own experiences and the lessons that he had learnt from them. He’s quite candid about his humble background, his rise to wealth and popularity and his downfall after he turned investor. When he was in the abyss of failure, life taught him some hard lessons and now, after returning to days of glory, he attempts to share these lessons with his fans and readers. "What prompted me to write the book was my life. I come from a lower middle class family. My father had to feed a family of four," says Kher. The book, thus teaches various lessons on how to live life and tackle situations. It tells us ways to handle failure and the art of practical philosophy. "Success is one-dimensional, but failure is a finely-nuanced. It was when he was completely in the doldrums, that he asked himself the questions that formed the basis of this book: "Why did I want to become larger than life?" "What was I in pursuit of? Wealth or happiness? Or just larger headlines than my rival production company?" Attempting to answer these questions, he formulated what he calls The Change Within concept. He uses his experiences as an actor and as a human being to attempt to explain this concept. Thus come about chapters titled Destroy the Ego, Know Thyself, Be Thyself, Be Detached, Let Go Apron Strings, Never put Off Till Tomorrow What You Can Do Today and In failure lies success. These are concepts that are not new to a country where every paanwala is a philosopher. What Kher, in fact, talks of is actually neither new nor revelatory, but it’s not bad for a budding philosopher in quest of himself.
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