The F?@k Knows Phenomenon
A debut author. A provocative title. And a campaign that made people stop — on the street, on social media, and in bookshops across India.
#1 on HT-Nielsen in 45 days. Crossword Most Popular Book nominee. Launches in 8 cities. Celebrity endorsements from Suniel Shetty, Yuvraj Singh, Kapil Dev, Rohit Roy, Abhishek Kapoor, Rahul Bose and more.
Suniel Shetty spreads the F?@k Knows love. 2013
What they have to say…
Abhishek Kapoor - “F?@k Knows is a fun book by my mad friend. Go get it.”
Rahul Bose - “May Shailendra have the same luck as he did with a new ball!”
Rishab Joshi - “Planning to get all enlightened with F?@k Knows this afternoon.”
Rohit Roy - “What Raju gave us on film with 3 Idiots, Shailendra gives us in print thru F?@k Knows. Irreverent, but totally relevant!”
Salim Merchant - “Go get it!”
Sanjay Suri - “Finally, you got it out :) I will order my copy.”
Suhel Seth - “Interesting book by my friend Shailendra Singh.”
Read an Excerpt
a taste of what to expect….
Shut the F?@K Up
‘Too much information, too much knowledge, too much noise—
tell your mind to “Shut th e f?@k up!”’
If your heart speaks the desires of your soul, and your gut speaks the language of the heart, then your mind speaks utter rubbish. Not only does it spew crap, it also hijacks the pure language of your heart and gut, twists it, distorts it and frickin’ shoves it back down your throat like it’s the truth.
A zillion rubbish thoughts are flowing through your mind every second, every minute, of every day. Imagine if you spoke out loud every thought that was running through your head, as you were thinking it. Every thought that passed through your mind, unfiltered and exposed. You would be called a ‘f?@king lunatic’ and thrown out onto the streets to live in a cardboard box. You would be ‘that guy’ in the train, telling everyone that ‘God doesn’t give a f ?@k about them and they should just listen to the message of the ocean and get ready for the coming of the flowers’.
In actuality, you really are just like ‘that guy’. You have just as many ridiculous thoughts, misguided assumptions, and unanswered questions. You just keep your mouth shut and don’t let anyone know. You’re just better than him at pretending to be normal.
The mind’s inane banter never ceases. When you went out to lunch yesterday, were you ‘living in the moment’—focused on the smells, the flavours, the tastes of the dishes you selected? No. You were thinking about what you were going to do post lunch—head straight back to office or hit up the Armani sale?
You were wondering why the woman in the cubicle across yours was bitching about you to the receptionist, why your girlfriend didn’t call you back, and if you wore your shirts one size smaller, would you look more like that beefy guy sitting at the table next to you in the skintight Under Armour?
They say the key to enlightenment is detachment. Detaching oneself from desire and from the mind. Disassociating from mindgenerated thoughts. Stop identifying with them, because they are not you. They are not your true essence. Your true essence has to become the watcher of those thoughts. To become a watcher, you have to take a step back and see them for what they really are.
Thoughts are parasites. They don’t have a life of their own. They feed off of you. They make themselves a part of you. They stay close to you, make you identify with them, make you believe that they are a part of you, so that you don’t notice them and try to get rid of them. If you got rid of them, they would die.
Like the Cymothoa exigua. Heard of this creature? It’s a parasite crustacean that enters a fish (usually a snapper) through the gills and attaches itself to the base of the fish’s tongue. It proceeds to suck all the blood out of the tongue, which then shrivels up, dies and falls off. (Note: It’s only the female Cymothoa exigua that does this). A tongue-less fish won’t be able to eat, which wouldn’t be good for the Cymothoa exigua, so the friggin’ thing then goes and attaches itself to the muscles of the tongue stub. The fish can then use the parasite like its own tongue and keep eating.
Yeah. Gross, right?
That’s what thoughts are like. They are so embedded in you, that you think it is you. You don’t realize that they are alien invaders that you need to get rid of. Not that the fish could do anything about it once it realized what was happening (no hands to pluck it out). But that’s the beauty of being a further evolved species. We can become the observers. We can step back, see the parasitic thoughts for what they are, shine the light of awareness on them, and dissolve them. Be rid of them.
Then—F?@K—you’ve arrived! Transcended. Enlightened.
And you won’t have a bug for a tongue.
Nationwide Book Launches :
Bombay | Delhi | Chandigarh | Bangalore | Indore | Lucknow | Goa | Jaipur
Yuvraj Singh at the Bombay Gymkhana book launch for F?@k Knows.
Cricketer of the Millenium, Kapil Dev and Rupa CEO, Kapish Mehra, at the Delhi book launch of Shailendra Singh’s F?@k Knows.
Shailendra Singh interviewed at the book launch in Chandigarh.
Shailendra Singh speaks to journalists and book lovers at the Reader’s Paradise, Indore.
Book Reviews and Press Coverage
Kapil Dev supports Shailendra Singh and Kapish Mehra, MD of Rupa Publications, at the Delhi F?@k Knows book launch. The Pioneer. March 2013. Read Article →
“Shailendra's book is a masterpiece of one-liners.” Business India book review. April 2013.
“Singh is known for thinking out of the box and employing disruptive innovation to break away from the clutter. F?@k Knows falls perfectly in line on that count.” Financial Express book review, Feb 2013. Read Article →
Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Roy, Cyrus Broacha, Kiran More, Manav Goel show up for Shailendra Singh at the Bombay Gymkhana book launch and celebratory F?@k Knows Cup. Midday, March 2013.
Sohail Khan celebrates the #1 bestselling success of F?@k Knows in Mumbai. See More Photos →
The Hindi version, Muzhe Jine Do…
was published in November 2013, as per popular demand.
F?@k Knows for Fun
