Do you believe in destiny?
Eighteen years ago, a certain family was watching this movie
called Dil To Pagal Hai in a packed house with this little four-year-old of
theirs. Every now and then, he would stand up on his seat during the movie opening
his arms, much to the disapproval of the people sitting behind him. Was it destiny
that this single screen was named Rahul?
I still remember that day. After the movie, when we were out
by the road, and the elders were busy deciding something, I walked to the
middle of the street and stood there with my arms spread wide out-- the same Rahul pose,
looking at the poster of the film, and then at my mom; and I swear I remember
the twinkling in her eyes. Of course, I had a nice one from her later for
running in the middle of the road, but I won’t forget telling everyone at
school for the entire next week that my name was Rahul.
But what I treasure the most is this memory of a
ten-year-old me having the house to myself on a warm, lazy Sunday, and
accidentally coming across this documentary about SRK on TV. I guess it was
Star Plus. (Thank you Star Plus, or whichever TV channel that was)
I didn’t know who Anupama Chopra was and I didn’t know what
BBC was, but I knew Shah Rukh Khan, and that was enough. So I watched both the
parts of that documentary, the Inner World and Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan. And
my life was never the same. I smiled as he celebrated Diwali and Eid and
Christmas at his Mannat, and as his kids recited the Gayatri Mantra and offered
Namaz; I welled up as he talked about his parents, I sobbed as he talked about
the time in Mumbai when he had to spend the night by the road.
And I smiled from ear to ear while my eyes were still
shedding warm water, as he talked about the time he was so angry, so frustrated
that he stood across the Oberoi hotel and shouted, “one day, I’ll own this
city.”
That has been the story. Loving Shah Rukh Khan is all about
smiling from ear to ear, while being swamped in tears. I go to watch his movies
to feel the warmth, to relive one of the biggest success stories ever, to believe
that dreams do come true.
Most people ridicule fans. And most times, they are right
when you look at it rationally. Fans, like me, are stupid. Their entire
foundation of happiness and sorrow depends on some person they’ll probably
never meet. They love that someone probably more than they’ll love the people
around them in their everyday life. But that’s the thing: fans may be stupid,
their love isn’t.
How else do you describe a kid watching interviews of a
movie-star so that he has someone to look up to? How else do you explain a
teenager watching the same documentary about the inner life of a movie-star
over and over again, because he needed fatherly advice? Whatever I have learnt
about love and life and everything else, I owe most of it to Shah Rukh Khan. He
is portraying a life coach in Dear Zindagi, but then that’s what he has been for
me and millions of others around the globe: a life coach.
They call him the biggest movie star in the world. But for
me, he’s something even bigger: the man who taught me all about love, all about
life; about how precious parents are, about how wonderful kids are, about how
important family is. The man who isn’t afraid to take risks, who has the
courage to stand alone, and who is the living example that dreams can come
true, however big they are. Thank you for making me dream, for making me love,
for teaching me everything you have just by being you, on-screen and off-screen;
thank you for existing Shah Rukh Khan.
Sometimes, I look back at the four-year-old watching the Dil
To Pagal Hai poster outside the cinema hall, trying to emulate this movie-star,
and wonder how that tiny action in that tiny moment changed my life forever.
I ask again, do you believe in destiny?
I don’t know. I believe in Shah Rukh Khan.
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