VANCOUVER: There was none of that K-K-K-Kiran stuff that he stammered through in Darr. There was no fear, and no second and third take. No dubbing or ad-libbing. Shahrukh Khan simply hit it out of the park. Aced it. Wowed everyone.Of course he would. Those who go beyond tinsel town and celluloid would know that before and beyond Bollywood , this most celebrated of movie stars (a mere 24.5 million Twitter followers; just five million shy of Narendra Modi and Donald Trump ) was part of a Delhi theater group. It showed in the ease of delivery -- sans prompter and cues -- on arguably the world's toughest stage, in front of an intellectual powerhouse: the annual TED conference of nerdy brainiacs and highbrow geeks.Calling him a ''renaissance man,'' as host Chris Anderson did, might be stretching it a bit, but King Khan showed that he's no mug with words or witticisms as he delivered TED's customary 18-minute talk with panache, laced with self-deprecating humor and thoughtful musings on TED2017's theme -- The Future You.After drolly telling an eclectic audience that he is a seller of dreams and a peddler of love from India, and joking that he is completely self-obsessed as a movie star should be, he ruminated at length about the Internet Age, observing, ''Humanity is a lot like me. It's an aging movie star, grappling with all the newness, wondering whether she got it right.''The provocation for his distrust of social media, it turns out, is the lurid sensationalisation of his personal life on Twitter, a sewage pit of self-appointed and self-important digital soldiers aka trolls."We had expected an expansion of ideas and dreams; we had not bargained for the enclosure of judgment," Khan mused, masking his hurt with laughter.The dignity of a life, a human being, a culture, a religion, a country, actually resides in its ability for grace and compassion, he said, with the gentlest suggestion that you don't get to see enough of it in social media.Outside, fanboys and fangirls pushed up at the doors of the Vancouver Convention Center with the persistance of the Pacific waters buffeting the building. The morning paper (Vancouver Sun) had splashed photos of Khan moseying around town happily helping his legion of fans take selfies, and more had turned up.Even the weather gods deferred to his presence, holding back rain for his dry run, a precursor to a TV show called ''Nayi Soch'' in the TED format he will host on Star TV later this year.In an interview with ToI in the media cave after his talk (which got a standing ovation), he spoke easily and disarmingly about the aging process, about yet another phase in his life (although he says he still enjoys doing the goofy song-and-dance stuff), about weighing in with intellectual heft, if nothing else to impress his kids, the eldest of whom is now studying in California.''I have been guided by a lot of people to become what I am. I think it is my job now to get over my own self-importance,'' he reflected.In his TED talk, which will be posted shortly, he also spoke of how India and its capacious plurality had ennobled him. There was an oblique reference to troubling signs everywhere.''You may use your power to build walls and keep people outside. Or you may use it to break barriers and welcome them in. You may use your faith to make people afraid and terrify them into submission. Or you can use it to give courage to people, so they rise to the greatest heights of enlightenment,'' he said.For the record, he revealed he has not had any trouble entering the United States this time.