Billu Barber

”Lakshman please come to my cabin”. As usual was chatting, solving issues, enjoying with friends at the pantry and was thinking about the evening plans when I heard those words.PM called me and asked me to go to Orissa. If it was said to a robot,it would obey without any second thought. But the human in me, initiated the thinking process. First thought was about my family. My sister and family were there at home. They had come down for vacation and would return in August. My sister’s kids, it’s very hard to part with them. I had seen them from the day they were born and was there in my house till the age of 4.Am gonna miss them. That’s for sure. Even though these thoughts went through my mind, nothing much I could do about it.Situations made me nod my head like a robot. So the coming tuesday was fixed for me to reach Orissa.It was Wednesday. A plan was under progress by my family to visit Cochin, Vegaland and finally hit a family resort. As the vacation plan couldn’t be rescheduled to any other day, everything was fixed at a fast pace. Tickets were booked for me and my family. It was one of the most wonderful journeys I ever had to Cochin via train. We didn’t even see the boards of the stations which passed by .Two days I enjoyed to the core and then on Sunday we packed our bags and headed towards the resort. We fell in love with the resort. It was love at first sight. We had a walk along the beautiful pathways and to add up to our excitement we came to know that some shooting was going on. Everyone got excited and couldn’t believe our eyes. The star which my sister and her sister in law wanted to meet was there. He was handsome and to add up he was my school mate. One year senior to me. Even though I didn’t know him personally, my role as billu barber was casted by my family. My family felt that this was the golden opportunity to meet him,as he was my,' the Billuz' schoolmate. Shooting was progressing and as he was really busy we went to our room and got fresh. The tension in me was growing and I was sure that this billu story will have a different climax. But as lakshman ban gaya billu there was no option left other than to go and meet him. With God’s grace when we came back from our cottage we came to know that the shooting got packed up and the stars had already left. Wow, I felt great. The day was mind-blowing, we had our dinner and continued our chit chat for a while along the pool side. It was the most beautiful pool I have ever seen in a resort. In fact, the longest pool. It a real treat for the eyes to see the beauty of the resort in the night.
Day 2 at resort. Start camera action. This is what I heard early morning. Was like get up billu, your time is up. After having breakfast we headed towards the place of shooting. They were shooting the last sequence of a song. Stars were almost relaxed and we saw them resting at a place. My bro in law told that this is it. Now is the time to go and speak with him. My time is up. The billu in me should come out. We headed towards the star. The beautiful pool was there on our way but I couldn’t see it.I was completely tensed. I was completely blank.billu billu billu.Yes there he sits, with all his makeup and waiting for his next shot. But for me it was start camera action.
Me:Hi
Star:Hi
Me:I was junior in school.
Star:Is it?
Me :Yeah
Star:ok(head away and expected the next step to be a autograph or photo session)
Me:Oh this is my bro in law
Star:oh hi
Bro in law:We are a great fan of you
Star: smile
Me :Fine nice meeting you bye.
Star :bye
Pack up was what I said to myself.
My scene was over. My family thought I will become a billu barber but my role was destined to be different. I don’t blame the star as he knew me very little at school. As an actor he had nothing to loose but if the way you behave and the words you say can influence millions then take it as an opportunity to bring a change. The change, to make things better. That makes a person the real hero.
Frustrations apart, I had a very memorable journey along with my family..Billu smiles :).