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