In Presence of Celebrities, Alone

People who are introverted and reserved often miss a lot in their lives. Their very nature prevents them from mixing freely with every one. Unfortunately I happen to fall into that category and, due to a certain shyness I have missed out on a few terrific opportunities to make friendly conversation with celebrities. I regret not making the opportunity to chat up with a few famous people in whose company I found myself, alone. Though it isn’t a very long list of celebrities it is by no means a lightweight one, especially when it includes someone like Sania Mirza.

The reason why I am doing this post is that one such celebrity I missed talking to happened to be the comedian Mallikarjuna Rao who died yesterday. Sometime last year I was traveling from Machilipatnam to Hyderabad by train and at one station he got in or he was already on the train. He was in the same compartment I was in and there was a buzz in it about his presence. At some station someone passed on an enormous tiffin box to him and a few hours later he sat alone and had his dinner. The others with him were nowhere to be seen and he was just across my seat but I did not speak to him at all. Now when I learnt about his death I wished I had talked with him. He was a decent comedian.

Coincidentally it was another famous comedian, someone whose performances I like immensely, Brahmanandam, I missed talking to. I was in the airport on my way to Port Blair two years ago, on the 90-day trip to the Andamans. He was sitting across me waiting to board the plane to Chennai. I wanted to talk to him but there was a crowd and I thought he would just smile and look away. I was also a bit nervous about the whole trip so I did not talk to him either. I regret missing that opportunity too.

But the most exciting encounter was with the teen tennis sensation and fellow Hyderabadi, Sania Mirza. It was maybe an year ago but I remember it was a book reading at the Taj Krishna where William Dalrymple was launching his book. I had just arrived at the hotel and was waiting for the lift to take me down to the hall. Sania too was waiting for another lift a few feet away. I got into one that arrived and the doors were just closing when the attendant outside pressed the button to keep the door open. I almost stopped breathing when Sania Mirza entered the lift I was in.

In keeping with my disposition I remained tongue tied while she looked at herself in the mirror and arranged her hair. It was hard not to stare at the fair, beautiful and young player but I managed to look the other way and remained silent. The lift had mirrors all around so it was not so easy to avoid looking at her. I guess she thought I was a snob for not recognizing her. But I simply did not know what to say to someone so famous like her. Also, it was so sudden and unexpected it did not even enter my head to say hi to her. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity the lift came to a stop and we went our separate ways. I went to the reading and she went to, I guess, some kind a beauty parlour somewhere in the vicinity.

No one I told it to would believe I was alone with Sania Mirza in a lift for almost two minutes and hadn’t said hi to her. I think it is downright disrespectful not to acknowledge the presence of celebrities so I resolve to at least smile when I am in a similar situation in the future.