For Farah

I wouldn't be surprised if most of you felt mildly bewildered upon reading this blog's title. "Who is Farah?" you might ask. Guys, to answer your question straight out, I don't know much about Farah myself. We've spoken on the phone infrequently, exchanged some mails and I've never even met her. So what's the big deal? Well...

Farah Samoo is the creator and guardian of a website called www.RamPrachiRock.com, which has been the single most comprehensive fan website dedicated to Kasamh Se, Prachi and me. The fact that she stays about 7000 kilometres away from Mumbai has done absolutely nothing to dampen her spirits, as she goes about industriously, gathering information to keep her (our) site up-to-speed. Farah - I just want to let you know that your efforts are very, VERY appreciated. It is in fact a humbling experience for me to have a fan like you - someone who invests such a considerable amount of her time and skill into building a great space like RamPrachiRock. Keep up the great work!

I look forward to seeing you in NY in a month's time, and I promise you this - you and every member of RPR will get backstage passes when I come down to perform. And finally, we will meet :) Till then...

Keep smiling,

Ram Kapoor

Friendship Day Special :)

Hi Guys,

What would I be without all the friends in my life? Here are pics of some of them.

Gurdeep might look all sweet, but she sometimes gets scary!!! Am petrified of her!

Neil and I are friends from school-days. He doesn't like my sense of humour, I think.

Anjali is married to Neil!!! Can you believe it! This is a pic of us in my KS dressing room

Hiten dropped into my trailer and had me laughing. Don't remember what was so funny, but...

Karan gets what's coming to him. No one messes with Ram. Take that!

Keep Smiling,
Ram Kapoor

Cherish what you have.

My blog's title might have you believe that I write about the passing away of an old friend. In some ways, it is related to this sad event- but it is about something that happened while I was in the ICU, watching him as he slowly faded.

I'd been in and out of the ICU for about 8 hours, trying to do what little I could to help. The hospital ICU was like most other ICUs - a glass pane separating the ward from the rest of the hospital. 2 rows of beds with curtains drawn were all I could see from the outside, and I could also sense that everyone there was on the thin line between life and death. I mean, that's why it's called an intensive care unit, right?

It was while I was in thought about my friend's situation that I was approached by a woman in her early 40s. She wanted to know if I would come and meet her son, one of the ICU patients. I agreed - and she led me to the bed of a young boy who couldn't have been more than 16 years old. His eyes were alert, but the rest if his body seemed inert, paralyzed. His mother introduced us and I saw a smiling flicker of recognition as the boy recognized me. All this while, half my mind was thinking about getting back to my sick friend.

Around 5 minutes into the meeting, I asked her -
"How long has your son been here?"
And my world came to a stand-still when I heard her say -
"8 years."

Now guys, we all have our lives to lead. We all have our goals - be it career, family, money - and we all (me included) spend our lives running a race for the ever-distant future. Sometimes the race gets so involving, we do not hesitate to shout and yell when things do not go our way. Me? If my shot is delayed by an hour, I give my unit hell! One hour! And here I was standing in this dark, quiet ICU, with someone for whom life had frozen for 8 years. 8 years!

I hope you see what I am getting at. This blog is my expression of the age old saying - "Cherish what you have, NOW!" There is no saying what tomorrow brings. All we have is now.

Keep smiling,
Ram

Thank you

Hi Guys,

First of all, thank you for the overwhelming response to my previous blog. Of all the mails and comments I received in the last week, we've found several people with the right blood group (A +ve), willing to donate. I seriously wasn't expecting such a response. People wrote in from all over the world, sending my friend wishes and even spreading the word. It has been an experience that has touched and moved me.

Now - as for the actual donation, that's still about a week to 10 days away from happening. As soon as we have a fix on the exact date of the transplant, I will contact those who have come forward to offer their help. More donors are always welcome. (For those who came in late, please read my last post titled "Need your help". If you too are A+ve, and want to help, drop me an email at ram.writes@gmail.com.

Thank you once again. I promise to write soon.

Keep smiling,
Ram

Need your help

Hi Guys,

I write today to ask for your help. A close friend and colleague has been diagnosed with blood cancer and is in urgent need of a bone marrow transplant. From what the doctors have told us, the transplant itself seems like a relatively simple process - pretty much like a blood donation. However, the common perception that bone marrow transplants are painful makes it difficult to find donors. In this blog I have summed up the exact requirement, and I request you to spread this message to as many people as you can - through email, Orkut, Facebook - anything you have at your disposal.

If you want to help out, please, please leave me a COMMENT ON MY BLOG (RAMKAPOOR.BLOGSPOT.COM) WITH YOUR NAME, EMAIL AND MOBILE NUMBER. You could also mail it to ram.writes@gmail.com.

If your blood group is A Positive, and if you are below 50 years of age, you could be a match. What's important is that you need to be willing to donate bone marrow. Like I said earlier, modern technology has made the process itself simple and almost exactly like a blood donation. Once we have your contact, we will arrange for a simple blood test to find if you are a match. When the bone marrow match is confirmed by the doctors, we will arrange for the transplant of the marrow itself, which will happen in Vellore, Chennai, India. The patient's family will arrange for all expenses to be paid. All they need is 2 days of your time (one, to travel to Chennai, and one, for the transplant itself).

The operation could happen anytime after the 10th of July, 2008. Need your help friends. The more people we reach out to, the more chances we have of finding a donor. Forward this message to everyone you can and hopefully, we can help a family in their hour of need. Please come forward guys and try and help save a life.

Keep smiling,
Ram
http://ramkapoor.blogspot.com

The Circle

I’m right now in between shots and down with the worst back ache. When your 2-year-old daughter decides to use your back as a human trampoline - that too on her birthday - there's not much you can do. Now, I’m on a 4-hour cycle of painkillers, with one more shoot before I can call it a night. What fun!

While blogger’s block is something that I can’t really crib about (this IS only my 4^th blog guys), I don’t feel very sure that I should tell you about this event that occurred in my life a few days back. It’s just an incident, but it left behind something special in my mind. OK, what the heck - here it goes .

Most of my banking is done via ATMs, but this time was different. I was there to make a deposit, so I was in a branch, waiting my turn in a queue. Now most public figures have a heightened sense of all the nudging and whispering that goes on when they enter a room, and I am no different. Standing there in line, I could hear, about 3 or 4 places behind, a mother and child. The child’s voice seemed animated upon finding Jay Walia in a bank, a few feet away from her. She started to cajole her mom into meeting me. The mom on the other hand sounded reluctant, most probably in an attempt to give me my space. While I love the attention I get, I was also running a packed schedule. So I let the mom-daughter duo sort it out without intervention. (To be honest, I was hoping to make a getaway before they got to me)

This went on for about 5 minutes. In these 5 minutes, what had begun as whispering had escalated into an unavoidably loud conversation. Finally, behind me, I heard the mother relent and approach me. She was older than I expected and asked me politely if I would meet her daughter. “Of course”, I said, almost eager to get over with it, so I could get back to my business.

And then I saw her daughter. She sounded like she was 10, but standing in front of me was a 30 year old, intellectually disabled woman. She seemed elated to see me, but reacted completely different from all the fans I had ever met before. I mean here in front of me was a fully grown woman, but yet also a child. She spoke with me and held onto my hands with child-like joy (I could feel her shivering with emotion). She seemed so, sooooo happy to have met me that I have to admit I felt like an absolute fool for having hoped that I could avoid them.

Meeting fans in my line of work is an everyday event. At times exciting, at times intrusive. We learn to handle it in a set pattern, almost as if on autopilot. However, meeting this woman in the bank, hearing her argue with her mother to spend a few minutes with me, and seeing her get beside herself with joy - it broke that autopilot. It got me thinking again – of how all actors and public figures are nothing without the various people who love them. Hundreds and thousands of people who I reach out to through the tube 5 times a week, and this woman and her mother who had reached back to me. The circle seemed complete for a few moments.

I guess this incident touched me so much, I just HAD to share it.

Keep Smiling,
Ram

My dog Joey

This is Joey - the laziest dog on the planet. He's ugly, short, stubby, stinky, smelly, ill mannered, ill tempered, lazy and his tongue is too long for his face (which is why a bit of it always dangles out) - but I can't picture my life without him ..... God, love him to death.