Shah Rukh Khan's TED Talk will make you fall in love with the badshah again

"Namaskar, I'm a movie star. I'm 51 years of age... but I behave like a 21-year-old in my movies... I sell dreams and I peddle love."

Well, by now you know who is talking. Yes, the first TED Talk by an Indian actor is now available, in entirety, online, uploaded two weeks after he spoke in Vancouver.

Even before it was released on TED’s official YouTube page on May 11, we in India mostly gushed over some of his headlining quotes, or should we say the trademark spontaneity through various tweets and web reports.

By now, we also know what he "peddled" in Vancouver, but perhaps we still need to listen to the entire speech of 17 minutes, 51 seconds to absorb what he actually was trying to "sell" us other than those dreams and laughter.

His TED Talk generated a lot of laughter among people. In fact, the first one minute and 23 seconds saw the audience welcoming each of his lines with laughter and applause. The rest of the speech too went on quite well.

Some sites described it as a "sprawling talk", some called it the "funniest ever". Very few though pointed out that the actor wasn't as "tightly focused" as some other speakers. Which is actually true. Even die-hard loyalists of the actor would agree that somewhere he sounded little jaded (very much like an aging star, that he admits he is, and "humanity", which too is "like an ageing movie star" like him.

But beyond all the dreams that he has been selling us for more than 25 years now, there was a very important message that the "aging star" gave about humanity. And just like he claims he is clean and doesn't use Botox as of yet, his message too was clean and clear — how the humankind needs to understand the real purpose of living and not get confused (and caught in the "mid-life crisis").

How the "future you" (apparently he was invited to speak on that to which he said he will talk about "the present I") runs the danger of getting lost in the present struggle between the "real" and "virtual" world.

"Reality became virtual and virtual became real. I started to feel that I couldn't be who I wanted to be or say what I actually thought. And humanity at this time completely identified with me. Both of us were going through mid-life crisis. Humanity, like me, was becoming an over-exposed prima donna."

"I tried to reconstruct my identity on social media."

Mankind, he said, will never be wiser about its future unless it is coupled with a sense of love and compassion for their fellow beings.

It's natural for the "greatest lover of this country" to rely on love to achieve what we all dream of — a perfect world.

The actor, in reality, touched upon all that the world is grappling with — our lack of compassion for fellow human beings, acknowledgement to refugee crisis in our quest for a new world order with the "crude tools of survival".

"You may use your power to build walls and to keep people outside or you may use it to break barriers and welcome them in."

He very honestly took us to a past, which wasn't very long back actually, where life was so much simpler.

"You ate what you got, you did whatever you were told to. You married the first girl that you dated... I really thought that gay was a sophisticated English word for happy and lesbian, of course, was the capital of Portugal."

"Where was I?"

Those three words rang so true to most of us to whom the Badshah of love happened. Which world were we living in all these days? 

Perhaps we need our idols to remind us now, more than ever, of what we used to be — a much-simpler humanity.

His subtle messages didn't get lost on his fans, especially in his home country.

"You may use your faith to make people afraid and terrify them into submission or you can use to give courage to people," he said.

Indians back home (and even those living abroad) don't need to be told what he was talking about. 

He said it all without mentioning any of the present-day bickerings in the country, which we have turned into a war field where we fight our battles with the weapons of religion and region from within the walls of hatred.

Our Badshah may have aged (50 films and 200 songs already by the time he was 40) only to grow wiser.

And like all wise men, he gave us hope about how we can still save some of the humanity for the "future you".

"If there has been a momentous time for humanity to exist, it is now. Because the present you is brave. The present you is hopeful, the present you is innovative and resourceful, and of course, the present you is annoyingly indefinable." "The people of this ancient land (India) embraced me in their limitless love and I have learnt from these people that neither power nor poverty can make your life more magical or less torturous."

"...the dignity of a life, a human being, a culture, a religion, a country actually resides in its ability for grace and compassion." 

"...whatever moves you, whatever urges you to create, to build whatever keeps you from failing, whatever helps you survive is perhaps the oldest and simplest emotion known to mankind, and that is love."

All his life, he mostly played a lover (onscreen), has spread love, and has been loved by what he calls "the humanity".

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Shah Rukh Khan! Yes, he has truly arrived.

Also read: Why a reinvented Shahrukh Khan is good news for everyone