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Body-shaming people based on their size and colour is a problem not only Indians but the whole world is trying to write off their sin-list. While many would be bogged down by the trolls and comments that come their way, some brave souls make it through the hate-shower and come out shining.
And isn’t it really satisfying to see your hater squirm while seeing you happy and successful? After all, when life gives you lemons, you make…
Recently, Humans of Bombay uploaded the inspiring tale of Indian comic Tanmay Bhat, and how he turned his fat-shaming digs into his success story. It is a must read.
“I grew up in a small middle class family where everyone around me was either a doctor or an engineer. I have always been overweight, and a huge part of my childhood revolved around trying to be funny as a defence mechanism. I loved being the class clown, the kid who everyone referred to as funny. Growing up, I was obsessed with Johnny Lever to the point where I would tape over his voice and crack his jokes for over an hour with ease. On the 26th of January when I was in the 7th Grade, there was a building function going on and I mustered up the courage to ask the organisers to give me 5 minutes on stage. I told them I couldn’t dance, or do kart wheels but I would make people laugh. I went on and for 20 minutes straight released all the Johnny Lever jokes within me…and I basically slayed. You could say that my first tryst with comedy stemmed from way back then.
My parents were concerned with my weight for health reasons, so when I was in the 8th standard they bought me a cycle at home and motivated me to lose 5 kgs in 6 months. That was a significant incident in my life because even though I had no pressure from my parents, it was an admission of a huge flaw. I remember cycling and weeping because that’s when I thought If I couldn’t even lose 5kgs, what was I really capable of? But like they say, from your biggest adversity comes the biggest opportunity — after that I was never the same again. I worked my ass off— my numbers were perfect — I topped my school and my college and became obsessed with making something of myself and proving a point.
I gave up trying to become a marine engineer and focussed on my biggest passion — comedy. I have gone to every festival — from Malhar to everything else just to perform and get on stage. I have written, performed and have been part of events where I’ve been the only performer because no one else applied. At 18, I’ve written for Mumbai Mirror and by the age of 25 I had written over 15 television shows — I worked fucking hard.
Then I remember my first legit stand up happened when Kavi Shastri advised me to talk about who I am— for 20 minutes I joked about what it’s like to be fat and people loved it and I loved the applause — it was like a drug like nothing else and I think that’s when I decided I wanted to do this for the rest of my life.
So very honestly, when people troll me for being fat on twitter I actually reply saying, ‘thank you’ because if I wasn’t fat I would have never worked this hard. I say thank you because I have an entire career because of it. I say thank you, because if it wasn’t for those jokes, I wouldn’t have had that much anger in me to go out there and kill it.”
My parents were concerned with my weight for health reasons, so when I was in the 8th standard they bought me a cycle at home and motivated me to lose 5 kgs in 6 months. That was a significant incident in my life because even though I had no pressure from my parents, it was an admission of a huge flaw. I remember cycling and weeping because that’s when I thought If I couldn’t even lose 5kgs, what was I really capable of? But like they say, from your biggest adversity comes the biggest opportunity — after that I was never the same again. I worked my ass off— my numbers were perfect — I topped my school and my college and became obsessed with making something of myself and proving a point.
I gave up trying to become a marine engineer and focussed on my biggest passion — comedy. I have gone to every festival — from Malhar to everything else just to perform and get on stage. I have written, performed and have been part of events where I’ve been the only performer because no one else applied. At 18, I’ve written for Mumbai Mirror and by the age of 25 I had written over 15 television shows — I worked fucking hard.
Then I remember my first legit stand up happened when Kavi Shastri advised me to talk about who I am— for 20 minutes I joked about what it’s like to be fat and people loved it and I loved the applause — it was like a drug like nothing else and I think that’s when I decided I wanted to do this for the rest of my life.
So very honestly, when people troll me for being fat on twitter I actually reply saying, ‘thank you’ because if I wasn’t fat I would have never worked this hard. I say thank you because I have an entire career because of it. I say thank you, because if it wasn’t for those jokes, I wouldn’t have had that much anger in me to go out there and kill it.”
He made the best out of his situation and directed his anger in the right direction. So can you! So if you’ve ever been bogged down by life or people, get right back up, dust yourself and walk like a boss!
Source: Humans of Bombay
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