Bingo ! Shahrukh Khan

“ Lavkar uth devla javal shooting chaalu aahey”  (Wake up fast,there is a movie shoot happening near the temple) Aai tried to wake me up one fine day in the summer of '92 in Goa. I asked her “Who is the hero? “ as I was still trying to wake up ,my grandmother didn't know any of the new heroes .Meanwhile one of my elder cousins who had just had her fair share of watching the shooting had come back for a small break and I asked her who is the damn hero, she says it is same the guy from “Fauji”.”Oh that guy” I said, Fauji used to come on TV in the 90's and my cousins never missed this show,they had totally fallen for this lead hero of the serial. “But what is his name?” I still persisted only to get a blank response. Still not excited about the shoot wondering why wasn't  Salman or Aamir shooting.

I clearly remember the location ,there was a Fire Brigade truck ,a building from where some smoke was coming out and in between all this  they were shooting a song ( You can clearly see the part in the video I have shared below). There is a lady in the with a camera,which is on a rail,shooting the song and when she yells out “ACTION' ,the lines from the song plays in the background “Jhoota hoon yaah sacha honn,jaaney saara zamana” ( Whether I am Liar or Truthful,the whole world knows) and then the Hero appears and widens his arms and then runs behind the heroine who seems to be upset at him and there are nuns around her trying to convince her to speak to him, while he climbs up the ladder and tries to enter the buikding,from where the smoke is coming out (Emotional Blackmail in Hindi movies I guess). After the shot the Hero goes and sits on his chair .All alone no one is there to speak to him. I am amazed how serious he is off the camera and how he changes his expressions when he comes in front of the camera.A girl approaches him and asks him for an autograph,he doesn’t even smile but obliges her.All the while I think, why this guy isn’t smiling. Now other kids go to him,even I am there in this bunch( oh yeah even I was a kid once).He gives everyone an autograph and then he asks me in a “Don’t you want one?” and I reply back saying “I am on a vacation,I don't have a paper with me” ( How stupid I could be,why couldn't I just borrow) ,and then he smiles at me and goes back again for his shot. When I narrated this incident to my cousin sisters they couldn't stop laughing,at first they didn't believe me but one of the kids from the neighbourhood narrated the same version .I took me two days to get his name right,first it was Saroj khan then it became Shahroj Khanand then finally I was able to say Shahrukh Khan.

The song,which they were shooting later turned out to be a very nice song called “Aana mere pyaar ko naa tum jhoota samjho jaana” ( Anna please don't think my love is fake) and the movie was Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa,which has been one of my favourite movies since then and it has a wonderful soundtrack too.I don’t know whether I like the movie because I have a bias towards it or may be because it is just the movie about a boy who really likes this girl but his feelings are unrequited,so he tries very hard to woo her and in the process makes a mistake,which makes the girl very mad at him.I feel the story comes very close to reality ,sure we all make mistakes,atleast I have and there is always the desire to want to win back that special person whom we just don't want to let go.The only sad part is that our life is not like these romcoms. .Ok I changed the tangent,coming back to KHKN,I don't remember when was the last time after KHKN did SRK not manage to get the girl in a film fall for him.May be therein lies the answer why I like KHKN so much, Sunil ( SRK's character in the film) ,the nervous wreck who is so damn real,I like him very much.Hell yeah even I lke singing these lines to a girl :) “Dekh meri taqdeer dil main kiska teer,aankhon main tasveer kiski hain sanam” (The english translation would be damn idiotic try it in your head,please don't try.)

The Walkabout

                                        

I like aimless walking,reaching nowhere I find it exciting ,but some evenings are strange.

Walking till Nariman point is always a great feeling. One feels a sense of closure there. The touch of the breeze after the walk is a nice consolation apart from the great view of the bay. Strangely for the last few months Mumbai Police doesn't allow you to walk on the promenade after 8 pm.There are always three cops there to prevent the people from going there. I have been stopped three times now, The cops are always there pulling people back “Maage yaah tithe naahin jaaycha” (Come back, you can’t go there).I asked one of the havaldars casually “Kaay jhaala, jaayla ka nahin det” ( What happened) .He said there was a dead body found couple of days back between the tripods and the cops went on a different tangent “kaay tumhi mula-muli kashey bastaat,kamret haat ghaalun ek mekachya,kon aaju baajula aahet yaachi parva nahi karat” (The way young people sit these days is very vulgar,you guys don’t care who is around) and then another cop joined in “aaj kaal time khup vaaeet chaalu aahey,roj papra madhye rape chya baatmya yetaat” (These are not good times,you hear news about rape every day, this was not the case earlier),all this while I was wondering how is not letting people enter a certain area going to stop all this but may be the reason for this is no reason at all ,I told the police to not be so judgmental after all there as also a constable called  “Sunil More” who had raped a girl on duty inside a police chowki at Marine Drive,and I walked from there.

Some two hundred meters away there was a guy entertaining people with his filmy antics, now I have seen this guy frequently for the last 7 to 8 years. He does stupid stuff but he makes the kids and the other people laugh, people even tip him. Now suddenly in the middle of the performance an Uncle who is upset at him tells him to pack his bag and go to another place, Later I saw him nearby, I asked him what happened there, he said “The man told me that he was seeing me for the last three days and that if I didn't stop he would report me to the police, so I ran away”. I said “Ok” and carried on.

I took a break,after some time near Pizzeria.There I saw a man,he must be in his forties, feeding stray dogs. The manner in which the dogs adhered to him was so endearing. This person had three bags full of food for them, but none of the dogs went berserk trying to grab a bite. Each one of them came ahead in an orderly manner ate their share and went away. This evening I thought is not all that bad,selfless acts can also inspire others,nothing more nothing less.