How Samir Soni quit a cushy job to chase his passion

Samir Soni

Memoirs are the favoured format of successful people to recount their journeys, never mind the details that get lost with time. Actor Samir Soni, however, has sought to capture his emotions and thoughts as, and when it happens in his book ‘My experiments with Silence: The Diary of an Introvert’.

In what is a breezy read, Samir takes you through how he dealt with his introvert nature as a child, the pressure of excelling in his academics, how he landed a coveted job on Wall Street and how, one day, he ditched his cushy job to chase his passion — acting.

The book is sprinkled with poems, diary jottings, and notes, “Through the book, I wanted to be a catalyst for other people to explore the journey of what they go through. I feel strongly about the introverts who form the silent majority. And I want to inspire them to go inward and discover their journey,” Samir tells Showtime.

After landing himself a job on Wall Street as a financial analyst in a top investment bank, Samir felt that something was amiss and an emptiness enveloped his very being. “So here I was working in Manhattan, getting paid the highest salary a college graduate could get and I was miserable. I didn’t belong here and got no satisfaction. It was films and acting that excited me. I believed I had what it takes to be a successful actor and that I would be unable to live with myself for not having tried,” he writes in the book that runs into 187 pages.

So overcoming the fear of the unknown and holding onto his dream, Samir landed in Mumbai with no plan in mind. “Many attempts later, I landed in my first project but it didn’t do too well at the box office. It was also around the time of my divorce. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for a double disappointment. But I didn’t want to take an escapist route and faced life head on. I made peace with myself and learnt a great deal from all that life threw at me,” says Samir.

He goes on to talk about how he found solace in writing and silence. He writes profoundly about how writing offered him the much-needed therapy.

“We need peace, which only writing seems to provide. Alone with one’s own thoughts. A crutch similar to another person’s company, but only more effective for it lightens one’s mind without making one’s soul hollow. I advocate practising silence because it is a good tool. Only if you listen to your mind will you be able to gain control of it.”

There are portions in the book where he touches upon how he missed by a whisker a coveted award that he was yearning for and how devastated he was.

“It always pays to never get carried away by the fan following or the praises showered on you. I always kept the person that I am and the actor that I am as two different entities." He says that stars have to handle the bouquets and brickbats with equal ease. The book also has chapters dedicated to how he draws a great deal of strength from his childhood.