When I was a kid, okay, I loved to watch this show called Shaka Laka Boom Boom. It was about a kid, Sanju, who had a magic pencil, and whatever he drew from that pencil, came to life. Quite a dangerous concept, but he was a good kid, you know, pretty self-righteous, and he would never draw anything bad from it. So much did I believe in his goodness and his fun loving nature that well, I had the hugest crush on him. Plus the fact that he was outoftheworld cute. I mean, which little girl wouldn't have a crush on him, he was the epitome of everything good and fun in the world. Until I grew up and realized that all guys are jerks, but thats another story.
So I was in fourth or something, when I went to Mumbai for a trip and I don't know how, but by some twist of fate, some fluke of luck, my father somehow got his phone number for me. I was ecstatic. Absolutely, I don't think I had ever jumped so much in my life. Sanju. Sanju. His name kept ringing in my head. But my job is done, my father said. Its your turn now. So after rehearsing a million times what I was going to say to him and my thumbs under my fingers, I dialed, and miraculously, that number was not fake, it worked. It ringed, once, twice, three times and a woman picked up. I asked her timidly if I could speak to Kinshuk (his real name) and she told me he was at shoot or something. And she said he would call back once he got free and how did I get that number, which made me realize that it must be a pretty inside number.
That said and done, he never called back and I didn't expect him to, with him being a big star and all. But even at that age, I was a persistent, little bugger so I called and called and called until his mom got sick of me and put him on the phone (thank God there wasn't the Reject Call application in those days). Anyway, all that I had rehearsed, I forgot right away and mumbled incoherent nonsense. My dad took pity and convinced him to meet me In McDonald's. OH YES. LIKE A DATE? MAYBE.
Just with parents and stuff, cuz I was nine. And he was twelve, I add slyly, whenever narrating this story to my friends.
The day finally arrived and I remember I had bought a Mickey Mouse photo frame from Pantaloons to gift him. He didn't get anything. Typical. I remember every single detail of that day, even the color of his jacket, because I've recalled that moment so many times.
The point I'm trying to make is, meeting him was like meeting the ultimate star at that time. I used to worship Sanju and his friends, they were like people from another world. And even when I met him, although tangible, he was still a person from a different world, a completely different world.
As time passed, I still had his number but I never called again, although you would expect an obsessed fan to call again and again until the person being stalked changed his number. But for some reason, I never did. Years passed, and I narrated this incident to shrieks of laughter(guys) and lots of 'awwws'(girls). And two days ago, I found him on Facebook. But please, who isn't on Facebook, so that bit wasn't a surprise.
And neither was it a surprise that he was hot now. That was to be expected.
The surprising part was, how, normal he was. As normal as, well, me. He is in college, currently not acting to focus on studies. But the rest was, all, very normal, like just another teenager. And then I found this other girl too, who played Ritu in the show, one of the main people in the cast, and she has a blog too which I read and was absolutely SHOCKED to read how normal her rambles were! I don't know what I was expecting, stories of starry tantrums maybe, or anecdotes of the 90210 life. But it was as normal as my life, or maybe even less!
I don't know how to put across the enormity of my realization, that these people, who I thought belonged to another world, a world filled with magic and fun and dancing in the rain and rescuing people, were just like me. And not only in the essential sense, no, in every possible sense right down to how we spend our evenings!
Even this second, the thought seems so surreal, that these people are just like me! Its very strange.
A moment of awakening? I don't know.
Most people I know would say, Srishti, of course magic doesn't exist, you've got to be absolutely stupid to be still thinking that these people are different.
But its not the magic part, it isn't. Its something else, something different.
I just hope I'm able to digest this bit of information before something equally unnerving is hurtled my way again!
Yes, go on laugh, yes you. I'll be doing the same when this moment comes to you.
School holidays extended till 17th!! Now, THIS is the life.
Whatte feeel :)
School holidays extended till 17th!! Now, THIS is the life.
Whatte feeel :)
