Rahul Bose shares life anecdotes

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 23

Rahul Bose first visited Amritsar back in 1997 to be a part of late Kuldip Nayar’s Indo-Pak peace initiative. “I remember that we had gone to the Wagah border and lighted candles for peace between the two countries. I also visited the Golden Temple,” said Bose establishing his connection with Amritsar. This time, he was in the city to speak at the FICCI FLO’s special talk on the subject of Beyond the Obvious. His life and career quite defining the not-so-obvious journey, Bose spoke about how at different crossroads in life he decided to do things un-obviously.

“I learnt to rely on my instincts and emotional intelligence rather than doing the obvious way of things. When you do that, that’s when you actually enjoy your success or achievements.” Coming from a typical South Mumbai family, Bose said that he was surprised at his success in Bollywood with the kind of cinema he has been associated with. Bose shared that he is also part Punjabi. “My mother is a half Marathi and half Punjabi, so I grew up with a mix of Bengali, Punjabi and Marathi culture. Sometimes, in my house, my family spoke all languages right from English, Bengali, Punjabi and so I used to fall asleep while listening to them,” he joked.

Speaking at FICCI FLO’s session, he shared anecdotes from his professional life, his career as an international rugby player for India and his charities- The Foundation and Heal. “At three very important junctions of my life, I experienced my toughest most humiliating moments. But they later on turned into three of my biggest achievements till date. First was working on my debut film English, August, that was India’s first English language film and official entry at the Toronto film festival. Second was my initial challenge to attempt to work for relief after the boxing day Tsunami that hit South Asia and parts of South India. It helped me reach out to people in tribal areas of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Third was my struggle to make a comeback at the international rugby circuit in 2009, before I hung up my boots at the age of 42.”

Bose also visited the Partition Museum as he shared he wanted to take a tour down the country’s tragic yet significant past.