The Boy from Jabalpur

There was something about this boy from Jabalpur… when he was on stage he held the audience in his intense eyes  and moved them with the grip of his base voice. His soft hair hung on his forehead and his smile had the charge of a thousand lights. It was when he was off stage that the tables turned. The other male actors would take him aside and pick on him. They would bully him into singing a song everyday.  It was extremely magical when he sang. One could easily sink into the song and forget the worries of the world. He always  sang with his eyes closed… well, almost always.

When she was around he looked right at her and sang the ‘Pick of the Day’. Sneha… Sneha on the other hand wouldn’t react too much for anyone to understand how she felt. She just stood pokerfaced beside her production manager, Sarita.

Sarita was her senior at the theatre production company and Sneha meted out her command to the tee. Everything was always in place ten minutes before the actors arrived. She made sure all the actors were comfortable. She kept a close check on the all production processes from the set, costume, props, lights and scheduling. She ran a tight ship and and even the senior actors thought twice before going against her word. Besides this what was endearing about Sneha was that when anyone was extremely nervous or had a problem they knew she was the one to go to. Her hugs released all their stress and tension. The only person she did not hug was this boy from Jabalpur.  Every time he would come by, she would stretch out her hand and wish him luck.

Everyone  in the company came to believe that she did not approve of this boy. So three years later when Sneha decided to make her debut as a director at the company’s theatre festival  and cast the Jabalpuri boy as the lead, Rathod saab said “We were under the impression that you did not like him.”

To which Sheha smoothly replied “How does it matter what I like and don’t like? The only thing that matters is what the character likes and wants and needs. ”

After the first reading, she sat everyone down and informed them about the schedule and told them about the cities that they would travel to with the play.  When she was doen she said ” Time for some samosas, I’m very hungery!”. One of the actors said “How about a story to go with the samosas Sneha? – Our Jabalpuri hero has promised to tell us his love story !”

With an intangible happiness on his face, he laughed and let out his story. He said “Her name is Nandini. She’s Anisha’s sister. Anisha from India English Theatre Productions.

I met Nandini first in February last year at the Best Biscuit ad shoot but I couldn’t believe it was Anisha’s sister. Nandini is very tall. When I met her she had just started modelling in Bombay.  Then I met her in November at the India English Theatre Festival at Prithvi. Anisha was performing everyday for seven day and she would come by to see her perform everyday.  She was going through a bad phase and struggling a lot. I just couldn’t see her so sad. So I would stay there and give her company.

I was supposed to go to Singapore for the Fringe Festival in January and after which I had a three-month programme with LaSalle. But in December itself Nandini received an offer to become an in-house model from a designer in Delhi. Before I left she insisted on meeting me. She came to Mumbai and spent an entire weekend with me. I don’t think she left me alone for even a second but I was still not sure of what she felt about me.

So I left for Singapore. After the Fringe Festival I had a break for four or five days before my programme with LaSalle started. They say that distance teaches you a lot about yourself and the people you really want to be with. So I took a flight and went straight to Delhi. When I got to Delhi I told Nandini that I hadn’t ever seen Agra and that I wanted to go.  That was it, in Agra, in front of the Taj Mahal, I asked her to marry me and she said ‘Yes’. But our story  doesn’t end there… our lives are always full of drama. Whenever she comes to meet me flights-trains-buses everything is on strike and when I go to meet her everything is delayed by six-eight hours. I always feel like I’m in a bollywood movie. I never thought that something like this could happen to me. I was always very happy being single.  I was never worried about anybody else.  Before I met her,  I would be happy going anywhere alone. Now… now I don’t feel like doing anything without her.

You know, I’ve liked girls before and girls have liked me, but love… I never really fell in love. I truly feel like this is it. ”

Rathod saab said to him “Just give it a year son and then you’ll know.”

And pat came the reply from Sneha “I pray that never happens, Rathod Saab.” She looked the Jabalpuri boy straight in his eyes and said to him “Just like you’ve told us your story staright from your heart, I pray from the bottom of my heart that you never fall out of love.”

 

Dedicated to my friend, Ashwin Srinivasan.