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Vashi2Panvel.Com: Navi Mumbai: March 4: We all experience fear slightly differently and with more or less intensity. It could be the fear of death or the fear of failure. If not properly handled, fear can even lead to social problems. Overcoming fear helps us to grow and improves self-confidence. Some fears become phobias and haunt our life forever. Such are the fears that create anxiety and effect our way of life to a great extent. However such fears and phobias are not uncommon and are a part of life of many.


Tanushree Dutta, Ponds Femina Miss India Universe 2004 has a deadly fear of darkness. “I cannot under any circumstances sleep in the dark I need atleast one light or ray of light coming from somewhere to be able to sleep peacefully”. While Tanushree lives with her darkness phobia Shefali Jariwala, the kanta laga girl, simply fears failure. “I cannot take failure at all. I get very upset when I’m not able to achieve what I aim for. Even for small things like cooking, like the other day I was trying to bake a cake and it didn’t turn out like I expected, I got so upset about it”. Failure is a fear that can lead to serious psychological disorders because everyone has to come across it at some time or the other. What helps most is accepting failure and going on with life.

While Shefali and Tanushree have extreme fears, Amit Sadh, Adi of Kyun Hota Hai Pyarrr, says that he doesn’t fear anything. “I ran away from home when I was seventeen and that is when I kicked my fears out of me”. Those who fear are those who lack confidence is what Amit has to say. Being a very adventurous person and trained by NIM Amit likes to face life boldly. Everyone has a different attitude towards life and it is this attitude that determines the fear that the person holds. If there is someone like Amit who has faced grave difficulties in life and has risen from scratch, fear may have no place in life while for someone who has lived in a shell, the world would be an evil place and the fear of this evil taking over would always exist in that persons mind.

There are people who have fear for situations in life while Rajeshwari Sachdev, actress and singer fears dying before dying or in other words, having any early death. “I would like to live my life to the fullest, see myself in a happy family, my children settled and success in my career and then would like to die without any pain. Not being able to fullfill this and dying before time is what I fear”, she says. The fear that Rajeshwari has is something that all of us experience at some point of time or the other. But overcoming fear is what seems to be difficult for all of us. Besides failure Shefali also fears heights. “I have been having this recurring dream since childhood of me dropping from a tall building. That’s why I fear heights and find it difficult to look down from places of great height. However now I live on the 14th floor and am slowly getting over this fear. But still I’m scared of flying or going at a height above the height I live at”, she says. Time no doubt is a great healer but knowing the reason of your fear can help to overcome it to a great extent. Tanushree besides dark also has the fear of drowning because she has almost drowned several times. “I’m never able to swim because of my fear of drowning. However that is a fear I believe I will be able to overcome someday for sure. I believe I haven’t tried hard enough to get over it yet but I can see myself as an excellent swimmer in the future”.

Overcoming fears is also a matter of self-will. Among other fears Tanushree as a child also had the fear of heights. “I feared heights but I got over it when I flew to Singapore and gathered the guts to do bungee jumping. While I was on it, I was so scared that not a single sqeak came out of my mouth but I went for it again and realized that it’s a beautiful experience and finally got over my fear”, she says.

While people experience fears because of dreadful things that have happened in their life Rupali Ganguli, the adorable middle class Monisha of Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai on Star One has the fear of losing her loved ones. “My parents mean the world to me and losing them or anyone I love is the biggest fear I experience”, she says. This is one fear that arises out of being emotionally close and dependent to someone and is a fear that many of us have within us consciously or unconsciously.

Most people tend to avoid the things they feel afraid of. There are, of course, exceptions because there are people who seek a thrill in experiencing fear. Fears that arise because of negative experiences in life may be disturbing, while fears that are learned as a result of conditioning may be beneficial because they help us to regulate our minds and behaviour. Thus experiencing fear is a part of our life and we must learn to live with it, just being careful that it remains just a part and does not start determining the way we live.

By Sumisha Arora