Sunday, July 24, 2005

Not another Sunday

It was just another sunday waiting to get run over by the ever crushing monday morning blues. Just another "muhurtha" day for marriage hall owners to be happy with. With more cold than brain cells, my head was not so willing to move out of the "sleep-zone" the whole weekend. I was more than happy to comply with, though my family did'nt share the same level of enthusiasm, my wife leading the pack of anti-"sleep-zone" enthusiasts.

More than cursing them, I felt sorry for them for not having the ability to sleep at will any time of the day. I, like so many other "hard working" bachelors (ok ok... most other married guys also) had the uncanny knack to sleep at 1 PM on any given weekend after having completed a hibernation of about 12 hours to wake up at around noon for lunch. If only they can understand the turmoils going through my head to appease the hunger of sleep inside me....

Coming back to the dull evening of July 17, 2005, we went for a friend's reception at Hotel Savera, Radhakrishnan Salai. That being a muslim wedding, we guys were not allowed inside the main hall designated only for ladies. After completing the formalities in the wedding (yup, that sure did including the food), we were starting to leave the hotel when he came.

A man, who breathed a new and refreshing genre of comedy into tamil cinema, the modern "kalaivaanar", comedy king Vivek entered the hotel. The first thing I did was to run towards him. I somehow had to get an autograph. I had seen many cine artistes during my life in chennai, but this was the first time I wished and wanted to get an autograph from one.
I was happy I started on the best note i possibly cud wish for. I ran into the reception area. I had a paper ( my company visiting card atlast coming into some real sensible use), but no pen. My grey cells got activated, caught a receptionist with a ball-point pen. I rushed to her, almost literally plucked the pen from her hand, and ran to him. I felt goosebumps all over my body just to stand near a person whose name itself was more than enough for people to go watch movies. I was panting when I came near him. The conversation went something like this....





Me: "Hello Mr. Vivek. Nice to meet you."
Vivek: "Hello Mr. Joseph, Its great to meet you. Can I have your autograph please?"
Me: "Sure, for vivek, anything. Hows ur next movie coming up?"
Vivek: "Can you please act in my next comedy track in the saran movie please?"
Me: " Let me check out my call-sheet and call you up. Call me monday evening. Thank you."
Vivek: "Its an honour to meet you sir..."


Yeah, right. Atleast I am the king here and I can write my own story.. isnt it?? The real conversation though was,




Me: "Can I have your autograph please sir?"
Vivek: (smiling ) "You came running for this ?"
Me: (collecing the autograph), Thank you very much sir."


He had written "Viruppamudan Vivek" on the card.




Thats all. Period. No, I dint talk anything more. I dint know what to. It all happened too fast for me. But, that one incident made my day. In fact, it made up the rest of the week for me. I am now the proud owner of a talent bank's autograph.