I recently watched the movie - PINK starring Mr. Amitabh Bachhan and Tapsi Pannu. For those who haven’t watched it, the movie was about the life of three young women who met few boys at a party. Those boys took them to their farmhouse and mis-behaved, resulting in Tapsi, the protagonist of the movie hurting one of them badly. Since that boy was a relative of the local politician, he decided to make the matter even out by punishing the girls.
The story has been brilliantly scripted and the characters have played a nice role, though I thought it could have been directed much better. Nonetheless, through this article what I want to bring out is the meaning of the word ‘NO’ that has been emphasized beautifully towards the end of the movie. For me to discuss this word, it is important that I briefly narrate the incidence from the movie.
In that scene, Mr. Bachhan who is the attorney for Tapsi and the other two girls asks her few questions regarding what had happened that night. Tapsi was telling how the boys took them to their farmhouse, offered drinks, which the girls happily accepted, and then the boys had some other intentions. They thought since the girls had come easily to their farmhouse and were drinking, they could also be asked for some physical pleasures.
While Tapsi narrated the incidence in detail, what was importantly highlighted was that when one of the boys was trying to get physical with her, she resisted but he wasn't listening to her. He still insisted and tried to force himself upon her. Then, at that moment Mr. Bachhan asked her -What did you do/say to him when he was trying to force himself”. Tapsi said -I said NO”.
After listening to this word, Amitabh Bachhan immediately went towards the judge and said - My lord, my client when she was being ill-treated and forced by a man to be physical, said NO”. The term ‘NO’ has no meaning other than NO. NO means NO.
A girl has all the right to say NO when she doesn't want a man. A wife has all the right to say NO when she doesn't want to sleep with his husband. A girlfriend has all the right to say NO when she doesn't want to be physical with her boyfriend. And NO means NO. The man/husband/boyfriend need not be told the meaning of NO, because if a woman is saying NO that means she is not interested and still forcing her is against her wishes and dignity.
I am not even 10% impactful in writing this scene what Mr. Bachhan did when he delivered these dialogues. And these surely reflected a reality. The meaning of the word ‘NO’ doesn't change just because it is used by a woman.
After the movie was over and I was walking out of the theatre, these dialogues were constantly bombarding my mind and I was thinking what is the lesson coming out of this word? And then I could make out something.
In our daily life we do so many things. Some are important and some not. Some are routinely and some new. Some are interesting and some very boring. Some are done out of interest and passion and some out of compulsion. If we get a chance to weed out all the activities that are not important, routinely, boring and those done out of compulsion, don't you think our life will be super sexy and exciting.
Just imagine a day when you don't end up going to office because that's the day you will write your first book. Imagine a day when your parents agree to make you study law and not science because your heart always wanted to become a lawyer. Imagine a day when you buy your first luxury car such as an Audi or a BMW. Or imagine a day when you decide to resign from your job and go on a world tour because you always wanted to do that. Or imagine a day when you cleared your CA Final exams in your first attempt and became a CA.
Whether it is buying a luxury car or a grand house or clearing CA or choosing your dream profession, this is all possible only because you wanted these things to be a part of your life and accordingly, worked hard to earn them. To my mind such pleasures in life are only possible when you decide to say ‘NO’ to things that are unwanted, wasteful, meaningless and not worthy of time spent.
I decided to say NO to my brain when it used to tell me not to get up at 5AM (Join the 5AM Club) because that was easy. I decided to say NO to all my friends who were with me during my studies and who I thought are not worthy of spending time, thereby resulting in excellent results in my exams. I decided to say NO to study science because I knew I would never be able to do justice in Science (though my father helped me in taking this decision). I decided to say NO to my cushioned job in PwC and decided to join my friends and start my own consulting firm because I knew that was the right path for me.
And this is exactly what I want to emphasize to all those reading this article. If you are a student you have to say NO to all those activities and things that are distracting you from your goals. If you are a professional, you have to say NO to a job that doesn't excite you even if it means waiting for some more time. If you are a trainee you have to say NO to all those in your office who end up wasting your time because that's the time you have to learn. If you are a mother you have to say NO to your child when he asks for some more time to play because he has to study. If you are a Manager you have to say NO to your boss if you believe taking up more jobs in hand will hamper the quality of your work.
And believe me, when you develop this habit of saying NO to all those things that are wrong and unjustified, the judge of our life, i.e. our subconscious brain will start working in our favour and we start to see the desired results. And this is quite logical too. If you start to say NO to activities that are not worthwhile, you are always sending signals to your subconscious mind to pick up and project only those things that you want to happen and ultimately only those things shall happen.
The judge in the movie PINK finally agreed with Mr Bachhan’s propositions and granted relief to the three girls. Similarly, I can assure you of excellent and desired results from the almighty if we all decide to say NO to things that we believe don't add value to this universe.
I wish you all the very best and stay blessed.
Authored by Nimish Goel (www.nimishgoel.com), a qualified chartered accountant who’s passion is to coach young chartered accountants and aspiring students achieve the best in their life. Nimish used to work with EY and PwC in India and has also worked with KPMG in Europe. He now runs his own consulting company and runs a blog www.nimishgoel.com. He can be reached for any queries and issues on his blog.
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