The Day I saw Aamir Khan..

One fine morning of August, when ideally Mumbai should be in midst of it's coveted monsoon-mania, the sun shone bright and the weather was impeccably built for a great day. I woke after three consecutive 'snooze-taps' on my poor alarm clock and proceeded to my daily routines which I needn't mention here. Little did I know what this day had in store for me.

Lets get a few facts straight. I am a research analyst and work for one of the respected research and consulting firms. Being based out in Mumbai, the financial capital of India, the role of the Mumbai office in the overall business of this firm is significant. Hence, as a part of business, our firm organizes events where various corporates are invited and given a knowledge sharing platform. It helps us to know our business, business of our clients and most importantly the client himself better.

So, back to the point, we are talking about one of such summits organized by us in a nice 5-star hotel in Mumbai. I reached the event on my prescribed time and got started with the regular coordination work, not much different from what would be in any other event of this scale. In a few moments only I noticed that there was a buzz around in the air. Not able to understand what the buzz was all about, I went on to ask one of my colleagues about it. He enlightened, "Arre, tujhko pata nahi kya.. Aamir Khan aanewala hai baaju wale banquet room mein (Translated: Arre don't you know? Aamir Khan's going to visit the banquet room next to ours)."
For those of you who don't know who Aamir Khan is, he happens to be one of India's leading actors, preferred to be called a superstars or perfectionist by some. He is also one of the best paid actors. Lets not forget to mention that he happens to be a highly talented artist of the large screen and a relatively new but established film-maker himself.

For those who reside in Mumbai, also known as the official Filmcity of India, witnessing a star is not a rare event. Though it still remains a memorable one. I, being one of the less-privileged ones, having come from a small-town, was going to see a star with Oscar prospect for the first time. Not bubbling with excitement, but anxious I was. And more so were the girls around me.
After a few hours of anticipation, and of course the event work which we were diligently doing ours being a really important event, Mr. Khan arrived. To say the least, he was accompanied by an entourage of security guards and assistants. Clad in a casual black shirt and a simple denim, Mr. A again made a mark of simplicity. He passed from the lobby of the hotel with a smile on his face, the kind of smile you have when you know that people around you expect you to be smiling. We witnessed a similar entourage of Mr. Khan for around three times in the span of 2-hours for which he adorned the hotel and whatever event was being held in there.

And he finally left, leaving the people happy who'd probably boast about it saying ,"Aaj maine Aamir ko dekha.. Baat bhi kiya.." Or maybe some others who might blog it up somewhere. Other's might go about twitting and shouting and mailing and calling and SMSing about it to the world.

The point of contention here is really not huge. It's simply about a miracle that is called 'being-celebrity'. Being a celebrity, your visit to a hotel, a simple come & go, could be blogged at a thousand places and be read by even more eyes. Being a celebrity, if you'd buy a dog, it would probably be a much more famous dog that it could ever have known. Being a celebrity, your fight with and anger towards someone would be known to many more people than you could ever rationally think possible. The gist of it is, no matter where you go, you live in a glass house with walls so thin people can actually hear you from miles away.

Disadvantages do come, but then there are so many benefits. As you read here on my blog, and as I am told Mr. Aamir Khan has his own blog too, it's hard to believe Mr. Khan writing a blog saying "The Day I saw Chetan.." Pretty unlikely I'd say.

The bottom line is, Celebrity is what Celebrity does.. That might just be news across the blogging community if he'd start writing about common people like me. And again he'd certainly gain a lot of (positive) publicity through it. And who knows, it might even gain him some browning points when he next gets nominated for the Oscars (which by the way I am sure he will, sooner or later).

Mr. Khan, I hope you are listening..