|| SHRI ||
Dear Friends and Family,
I am starting today's letter assuming that you liked the format of the previous letter—a little writing, a little audio—and I will surely think about whether I can give some short audios with each letter. I really liked your feedback. Keep reading my letters like this and keep sharing them with everyone you know. I wrote the same blog in Marathi if you want to read it just click here👉 Read in Marathi and If you want to read my last week's letter you can click here👉 week 16 letter.
Today we have come to a topic that I truly love from the bottom of my heart—films, and learning something from them. Since childhood, I never watched any movie just for timepass. I myself don’t remember how this habit started, but I always believed that films, serials, and cartoons are all mediums to learn something good.
One movie that I absolutely loved during my childhood was *Lagaan*. I still remember clapping in the theatre during one of the scenes. What kind of magic it was, I don’t know. But when I grew up and watched *Lagaan* again, I found so many examples of leadership in it. I started liking the movie even more. You might have seen this movie too, but today let’s look at *Lagaan* from the perspective of leadership. Let’s go!
The art of finding a way out of difficult situations
All stories have one common thing—problems. Without a problem, how can there be a story? Some problem must be there, and then how the hero solves it becomes the story. *Lagaan* is one of the finest movies in Hindi cinema. If you haven’t seen it, then please take time and watch it. We all fought against the British, but in *Lagaan*, the whole village fought against them. Not with sticks or swords, but by playing cricket.
The whole village goes to one British officer begging for mercy—“How can we pay the tax you are imposing on us? There’s no rain, no water, no farming. How will we pay double tax this year? Have mercy and cancel our tax.” So the British officer tells them, “Okay, I will cancel it. Not just for one year, but for three years. But in return, you will have to play a cricket match against us. If you win, your tax for three years will be canceled.”
This is how villagers try to catch a ball.
Now that’s a real Problem. Already there’s no rain, and they can’t pay the tax. On top of that, they are asked to pay double. And all of this can be waived for three years only if they beat the British team in cricket. But here’s another problem—nobody knows what cricket is. Never even held a bat. If they lose, not only will they have to pay the tax, but they will also face shame. Problem after problem.
Here comes the first lesson of leadership!
Who doesn’t have problems in life? No one can escape from them. You have to face them and grow bigger than the problem to move ahead. A person who has not learned leadership—what will he do when faced with a problem? The same as what 99% of people do: cry, run away, complain, hate, blame others, and so on. In short, avoid taking responsibility.
But a leader, even in struggle, sees opportunity. Looking at problems as an opportunity is a sign of leadership. The problem is there—now what can be done about it? Face it with a smiling face is the only way. That’s exactly what the hero of *Lagaan*, Bhuvan, does. When everyone in the village is crying and begging for mercy, he stands up and says, “Sarat manjur hai”—meaning, we are ready to play the match.
You must learn the skill of looking at the problem with a different perspective. Those who aren’t leaders—like the rest of the villagers—what do they see? “We are small, the British are powerful. Let’s just beg for forgiveness, maybe our tax will be reduced. How can we play cricket? We only play local games like ‘vitti-dandu.’ Let’s not take a risk.” They want to cry, make excuses, and avoid the match.
But Bhuvan, who has leadership qualities, sees this as a golden opportunity. He knows the British won’t cancel the tax, no matter how much they cry. If they have to pay, they’ll have to sell their homes. That’s not possible. So instead, they have three months. Why not learn cricket and defeat them? After all, they’ve played stick-ball games since childhood. Cricket can’t be that hard. Let’s beat them and cancel the tax.
Same situation, same problem, same struggle—but completely different thinking. When a problem comes to you, where do you stand? With the villagers or with Bhuvan? Think and check for yourself.
Where do these thoughts come from?
Many people think leadership is something you are born with. But where do we actually learn leadership? The answer comes from stories. Somewhere we have heard things like—“That king was so brave, even enemies ran away in fear,” or “Because of the honesty of the woodcutter, the goddess gave him three axes, golden, silver, and iron axes.” When we hear such things, we decide in our minds: “I too will be brave like that king,” or “I too will be honest like that woodcutter.
Teaching through stories is a big part of Indian culture. From the Ramayana and Mahabharata, we learn so much that even difficult things become easy. Just think—why did Shivaji Maharaj’s mother assign two people just to tell him stories during childhood? Because we grow through stories. Someone should have told us the Ram Katha (Ram's story) in such a way that even in the biggest crisis we think, “I will stay calm like Ram and do my duty.” That should be imprinted in the heart. So read the Ramayana, but also watch such stories, serials, films, and plays where the hero works hard and wins in the end. Today or tomorrow, slowly, even you will start thinking of the winning path when problems come, and you will start walking it and win.
This is part one of the *Leadership Lessons from Lagaan*. Bhuvan has accepted the challenge and said, “We’ll play cricket,” but did the villagers agree immediately? No. That’s when the real difficulties started. He believed, “We can win,” “I did the right thing,” but others thought he made the biggest mistake of his life. What happened next? How did he unite everyone’s thoughts?
We’ve now understood that we must treat Problems as opportunities—but what next? What did Bhuvan do, and what can we do in such situations? Let’s talk about that in the next letter.
Till then, stay calm, stay happy, and stay busy watching your favourite films. Thank you.
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