Memorable Meeting

I was 21 years old (43 years back) when my cousin who was about to get married made that request to my older cousin that he needs his older brother’s help in inviting this celebrity to his wedding. None of us wanted our uncle (father of my cousins) to know that this celebrity would be invited for the wedding as he would have immediately killed the idea. But would be bridegroom was firm in his wish and his older brother told him to stay quiet for a while until an opportune time.

The celebrity was unconquered king in the Tamil film industry besides being an upcoming political leader aspiring to become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. My cousin being a big fan, always considered him as one of the finest human being and never failed to see all his movies, if possible, on the first day of the release of his movies. Even though I wasn’t a big fan, I used to accompany my cousin and I was slowly lured to like him so much because of his high energy and fast-moving Tamil movies, his habit of having a set of popular heroines to pair with him and stunning duet songs. I made a casual request to my new bridegroom cousin that if he were to go to visit his Matinee Idol, I would like to accompany him. He promised me to do so if I can wake up early on a specific day.

Finally, the marriage invitations were printed and my older cousin who is a lawyer and a very close friend of this celebrity decided to invite the celebrity in person. This celebrity’s residence was 15-20 kms away from my uncle’s residence in Adyar. We realized that it would be difficult to get a cab to go so early in the morning. My oldest cousin decided to drive my uncle’s vehicle parked in front of our house on that day without his knowledge.

On that eventful day, we all woke up very early in the morning and left our uncle’s residence at 5:45 a.m. in the morning. Luckily, my uncle didn’t wake up to the sound of the car ignition. We reached the celebrity’s residence at around 6:10 a.m. We found two wonderful Italian dogs in front of the house with security guard opening the gate for us. The PRO asked us to be seated. Having found out the dogs as unusual breed, I asked gentle questions to the caretaker of the dogs. He said the dogs were very well trained and could in a heartbeat capture any intruder to the residence. He also added that they just sit quiet unless instructions were given by him. Seeing the size of the dogs, I stayed as far away as possible from the dogs. Eventually, we were given steaming hot Idlis and filter coffee while we stayed in a very-well decorated hall. While looking around, I noticed that the entire wall had so many glass-covered cupboards filled with so many mementos of his 100th day celebrations of many movies. I had also noticed the photograph of many national political personalities with this celebrity.

The time was flying and the wait became restless particularly for me with a lot of anxiety about how to greet such a personality having never met one before. At around 7:45 a.m., he opened the door behind my Sofa and entered the hall. He was wearing a milk-white dhoti and a nice-looking white shirt covering his entire arms and his stunning fur cap. In his inimitable style, he put his hands together and said “Vanakkam” (Salutation) in his typical style. When I rushed to get up, he gently came close to me and asked, “Brother, did you eat anything?” Already being so nervous about meeting him, when he asked this question directly at me, I fumbled and nodded my head in affirmation as words didn’t come out of my mouth. He gently asked me to sit down and started a conversation with my older cousin and shook hands with the bridegroom. He opened the invitation handed over to him and said, “I will definitely attend”. The meeting finished in 5 minutes and I dragged myself reluctantly towards the car knowing the much- anticipated show was over.

When we returned home, my oldest brother parked the car and ran out quickly telling us, “You are on your own to address father/uncle”. My uncle was very angry about misusing his vehicle without his knowledge and for making the wedding reception into a complicated event. The bridegroom and I took most of the brunt, but we were still dreaming about our meeting with the celebrity and everything my uncle said went through one ear and came through the other. Finally, we waited for the reception day and as promised the celebrity showed up with a brief case like varnished-wooden box which had six sliver tumblers in it. We all took photographs to our heart’s content before he left from the wedding reception.

 

@Gauri03,

Thank you for your first response. I am so happy to hear that you were able to guess it with the help of Google. I gave clues in an orderly fashion with the final clue of fur cap. That would have nailed it for many as he was the only one who used to make public appearances with the fur cap.

It is true I remember every minuscule detail from the time we started till we reached home. Ramavaram Garden, his residence, has now become a school for deaf and dumb children. I was very impressed with his golden heart. I had a second encounter with him when he was shooting a movie in Sathya Studios, Adyar. At that time, I visited Sathya Studios for reviewing their financial results and torrential shower started flooding the entire city. We were kind of struck in the studio. He was finishing up his indoor shooting and getting ready to leave. He came into the office we were all seated and asked a staff, "Did these brothers eat anything?" and when the staff answered negatively he said, "please send a vehicle to Buhari (a very famous restaurant in Mount Road) and get something for them to eat some hot delicious food and then arrange to drop them at their residences".

Thank you for sharing your encounter with APJ thanks to your father's service award. He is another big celebrity hero for me. I read all of his book and I have been a big fan of him since he started working in DRDO on Missile programs. One of his colleagues who worked for him in DRDO became a Director in C-DAC when I worked there. I have heard the story of him moving into the Rashtrapathi Bhavan. He came in an ordinary Ambassador car with two suitcases and when the staff asked him when his truck was coming, he said politely, "these two suitcases are my possession. There are no more trucks". I always wanted to meet him and my dream came true when he visited Tampa a few years back for a meeting. First he visited the Hindu Temple nearby before he came to the meeting. As an invitee, I had a chance to shake his hands. His tragic death while talking in a meeting made me feel really sad.

Viswa