‘Just imagine!’ Ayesha exclaimed. ‘We’ll be seeing him in person in a few hours!’
‘Ooh! What a wonderful day!’ remarked Ruth.
‘Keep your autograph books handy,’ said Vaidehi. ‘And pens, too.’
‘Yes, there will be a huge crowd,’ said Balwinder. ‘I hope we can get close to where he’d be.’
‘…and perhaps shake hands with him,’ giggled Ruth while blushing profusely.
The four girls were gushing about Shamnath, the popular film star.
He was going to visit their locality to inaugurate a jewelry store. The starstruck girls were cock-a-hoop at the prospect of getting to see their favorite star.
Ayesha, Vaidehi, Ruth, and Balwinder were seated on a park bench near Balwinder’s house. They were busy planning their strategy on getting close enough to Shamnath to get his autograph.
While they were busy chattering, Arvind, Vaidehi’s brother, happened to pass by them. Arvind was a college lecturer.
‘What are you kids up to?’ he inquired pleasantly.
‘We are not kids,’ Vaidehi replied with a pout.
‘Yup, we’re young ladies,’ added Ruth.
‘Could’ve never guessed that,’ Arvind grinned.
‘Very funny,’ quipped Vaidehi.
Ayesha asked Arvind if he, too, was going to see Shamnath.
‘No, are you?’ asked Arvind.
‘Well, of course!’ Balwinder remarked. ‘He’s the greatest!’
‘Greatest what?’
‘The greatest man alive!’ Ayesha burst out.
‘The mostest!’ Ruth added.
‘How come?’ Arvind asked, genuinely curious. ‘Has he invented the airplane, or painted the Mona Lisa, or propounded the Theory of Relativity, or chronicled the Ramayana, or liberated a nation, or…’
‘Oh, cut it!’ Ruth snapped.
‘A film star doesn’t do all those things,’ Ayesha said.
‘So glad you know that,’ Arvind remarked.
‘Well, you should see Shamnath fighting!’ said Vaidehi. ‘He can take on ten men at a time.’
‘Those ten men are paid to take a fall. It’s their job.’
‘Even if the enemies have guns and knives, Shamnath beats them black and blue with his bare hands,’ Ruth said.
‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,’ Arvind said. ‘A clever man knows he shouldn’t fight when the odds are stacked against him.’
‘He can drive a car up the steepest mountain,’ Vaidehi said exultantly.
‘With camera tricks, of course,’ Arvind guffawed.
‘And he’s so stylish!’ Ayesha said. ‘Just look at the poses he strikes!’
‘A little effeminate, if you ask me.’
‘Arvind, you know nothing about this stuff,’ Vaidehi said angrily.
‘And his dialogs are so witty!’ Balwinder remarked. ‘He’s so funny.’
‘You mean the dialog writer.’
‘And what about the songs he sings,’ Ruth began raving about Shamnath again. ‘They’re fabulous.’
‘He doesn’t actually sing them, you know,’ Arvind retorted. ‘Besides, the first verse is in Australia, the second one in Singapore, and the third one in the Netherlands. They seem to get separate visas for each stanza nowadays. What a waste of foreign exchange!’
‘You don’t know how to appreciate a superstar,’ Ruth lashed out at him. ‘Shamnath is a great man. He is so charitable and benevolent. He is very kind to the poor.’
‘Well, only on screen.’
‘Arvind, you’re just an old fuddy-daddy,’ Vaidehi said.
‘You know what? If Shamnath stands for elections, he would sweep the polls,’ Balwinder was waxing eloquent about her idol.
‘You should know the difference between make-believe and reality. Cinema is for entertainment. You shouldn’t confuse an entertainer with a leader. Everything is faked in movies. Enjoy it by all means, but don’t mistake it for real life.’
‘Go on, grandpa,’ Vaidehi was miffed. ‘Go preach your sermons elsewhere.’
‘Well, goodbye, then. And sorry, young ladies. But remember, Shamnath is just an ordinary person projected as a superior human being on the big screen.’
‘Yeah, yeah. Goodbye, old man,’ the starstruck girls chorused as Arvind moved off laughing merrily.
‘What a contrast this Arvind is to Shamnath!’ Ayesha remarked.
‘Yes, his dressing sense speaks for itself. He always wears a white shirt, white trousers, and black shoes,’ Vaidehi said. ‘Meanwhile, Shamnath always wears jazzy clothes.’
‘Arvind will perhaps dismiss them as effeminate,’ Ruth remarked.
‘He’s such an old fogey!’ Balwinder smirked.
♦♦♦
That evening, there was a huge crowd milling around in front of the jewelry shop. The police were having a hard time controlling the excited crowd.
Shamnath arrived over two hours late. His car inched its way through the sea of people. Young girls became hysterical as they began vying with each other to catch a glimpse of the star. Nothing could drown their screams. Young boys were incessantly yelling and whistling. Older people, meanwhile, craned their necks to see what the fuss was all about.
Shamnath got out of the car and began walking stylishly, his hips swinging left and right. He made his way to the small platform put up for the occasion. He leaped onto it, hunched his shoulders, and threw his arms out in all-embracing gesture. The crowd went absolutely wild. Shrieks, yells, and whistles pervaded the air.
Shamnath put his dark glasses on and off a couple of times, something that triggered a thunderous applause from the crowd.
Ayesha, Ruth, Vaidehi, and Balwinder pushed and shoved in an attempt to get closer to the platform, only to be pushed back by the crowd. That couldn’t keep them from trying, though.
Suddenly, Ruth spotted a gap in the crowd and darted right through it. Very soon, she was pretty close to the platform. Knowing that they wouldn’t be able to pull that feat off, her friends called out to her to get autographs in their books, too. They tried to pass on the books to her, but to no avail.
Finally, Ayesha decided to fling her book over the heads of the people. ‘Ruth!’ she exclaimed. ‘Catch it!’
And then, with a brisk flick of her arm, she threw the rather large book toward Ruth. Ayesha had hurled the book with such immense force that it whizzed past everyone at lightning speed. The heavy book sailed over the people’s heads. Ruth tried to catch it, but it went high above and fell with a loud thud on the platform, right behind a shocked Shamnath.
The noise startled the actor, who hadn’t seen the book heading in his direction. Shamnath leaped up like a frightened horse, his eyes wide with terror. He was taken over by fear! He scrambled to save himself, like a terrified child.
‘Help! Help! Somebody’s out to get me! Bodyguards! People are jealous of my fame, wealth, good looks!’ Shamnath kept babbling, frightened out of his wits.
And that’s when he turned and darted into the jewelry store.
‘It’s just an autograph book,’ the people standing nearby commented. The embarrassed star responded with a sheepish smile. However, his face was still pale; he was almost shivering with fear.
His shocking reaction hadn’t gone unnoticed by the hitherto starstruck girls. Arvind had been right all along! Suddenly, Shamnath’s autograph didn’t feel important at all.
‘Come, let’s go get some ice cream,’ Balwinder said gaily.
‘Yes,’ said Ayesha. She didn’t even bother to get her autograph book back.
The four friends walked away. Suddenly, they burst into laughter. They laughed and laughed, until their sides began to hurt.
As fond of writing a good story as he is of reading one, Pravin is one of the most promising writers at Ameya. He can be contacted at pravinkumar2788@gmail.com.