A Middle-class boy in the 5-Star Hotel Trident!!!

979th BLOG POST -->>       

I, sitting in brown shirt being shown on Aaj Tak!!!

  You all must have read my recent Blog where I reported Salaam Sachin event that I got to attend. Well, that wasn't the way I would have written if they would have left me to write it in my own way. I couldn't share my personal experiences there because I had to behave like an Online Reporter. Who knew that these roles come with the tag of being a Blogger! Strange! The Salaam Sachin event was organized by the India Today Group to pay tribute to Mr. Sachin Tendulkar on his retirement and thank him for the 24 years of entertainment and pride that he has provided us. The show was telecast live on Headlines Today and Aaj Tak. Well, knowing me, you all must be surprised that how this common man landed up at an event which is been organized at such a big platform and has celebrities like Abhishek Bachchan, Suresh Raina, Brian Lara, Ajit Tendulkar, Anjali Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohd. Azharuddin, Shoaib Akhtar, Waqar Younis, Rameez Raja, Sania Mirza, Sushil Kumar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Bishan Singh Bedi, Kiran More, Rajiv Shukla, Gulshan Grover, Raza Murad, Javagal Srinath, Prahlad Kakkar, Boria Mazumdar, Sweta Singh, Vikrant Gupta, Nilim Dutta, Keli Purie etc. 

             Now when I say that I got to see and meet these celebrities, I don't say it casually. It's like a dream come true. Well, who had dreamed something like this 3 years ago? I never knew that a stage would come in life where I would be continuously invited to the events where numerous celebrities are present on stage in front of me and even among audience around me. Well, before getting to this let me start it from the moment I started getting goosebumps. Never ever before this experience had I entered a 5 star restaurant. This year itself I promised one of my friend that I shall show by entering into a 5 star and eating something. But I didn't know that I would get an invitation itself and that too in one of the Best 5 5-star restaurant of Mumbai that's located at Nariman Point which can be said as the hub of Bollywood. Trident Hotel! Oh My God! That was itself an achievement for me. Leave the meeting-and-greeting-celebrity part. Well, let me tell you before starting the next paragraph- I was shown multiple times on television sitting in the audience. I am uploading a pic or two with the post so that you can see the snapshot of it.

Post by Abhilash Ruhela.

            After I entered the Hotel and I got to see the interior, my legs lost its confidence and got slow. They had never walked in an area that looked so grand and elegant. Somehow I reached the venue and at the entry when they asked me who am I and I said "I am a Blogger. Abhilash Ruhela. Being invited here for reporting". And the smart girl with waxed legs and red-lipstick with black-frame specs on her face said,"ABR, right?" and I corrected her,"ARB". She then said with the best smile I have ever experienced at the distance of 1.5 feet from my eyes,"Oh sure sir. You can get in". Just after this moment of getting identified by a totally beautiful stranger, I went and sat on the most last table in the hall which looked nothing less than the drawing room of the big-budget 1990s movie. I saw the stage, the cameras installed everywhere around and smart journalists, all whom I see on televisions, walking here and there in their suits and coats. Some how, I started feeling inferior and low.

            I started feeling that I would be thrown out of this venue after few minutes for violating the rules of entering into an event of this kind. I felt that one had to wear rich cloths, have rich look, amazing accent and posing attitude whenever camera starts focusing at us. I felt as if everyone was looking at me though people were busy in their own world. Somehow the function began and I started breathing as the lights turned off and only the stage shined. And then I realized that people here haven't come to observe and disrespect me but the whole focus is on the man who have created the history- Sachin Tendulkar. A documentary played where the whole 24 years were shown in a beautiful summary to us. After some minutes, Ajit Tendulkar got up on stage to speak with the journalist sitting with him, Boria Mazumdar, who is writing the official autobiography of Sachin Tendulkar. Wow! What a lucky man he is! And I was bowled over. As the session kept progressing, I started shifting my table and got ahead. After some time, I was sitting in the very first row. 

            Seeing the celebrities around me I wanted to get along with them, talk with them, tell them how big a fan I am and get a snap of me so that I can always feel the heat in me whenever I would see those picture. But then I noticed the people sitting around me, all of them were Crorepatis and they were themselves a celebrity in their own way. These celebrities and Cricket stars are daily things for them. They didn't feel any heat in experiencing the legends around them. And because of these sophisticated class, even I had to behave decently. Just being around people of this upper-rich class develops your personality and builds etiquette even when no one taught you before. After some time, I saw the photographers sitting just below me. They were the most wonderful talent in the whole hall. They had wonderful and big cameras in their hands which I have never seen in anyone's hands before. They were regularly taking snaps of the celebrities in every pose and each photo that they took were such a master class that I felt like laughing over my friends who have "My Photography" album in their FB account just because they have a  DSLR camera and knows a function through which they can add their name's watermark on every picture that they click. As if having their name on our picture will make us a celebrity among our another circle of friends that a photographer of Dabboo Ratnani level has clicked my pic. Haha! A long way to go my self-proclaimed photographer friends. 

             I was so impressed by their work that for rest of the time I preferred to sit with them rather than those suited-booted public who carried a fake smile throughout the event. Everyone is fake in that community. There is such a race of brand and attitude that they have forgotten that they are as much human beings as those living in Dharavis. Everyone had a bit of arrogance on their face because they have achieved enough money to pay bill of their air-conditioners all their life. Later on when lunch, coffee, cocktail and dinner were provided, I just thanked God for blessing me 5-star food for free. :-) Now who dreams this? I just dreamed and wished of earning enough so that I can afford food at this restaurant all my life. But when did I dream about having food here for free as a guest? Never! Out of say, 20 dishes, I didn't understand what 16 of them were even after reading their names. May be, the middle class does not have access to few vegetables still. 

          At last, I met Abhishek Bachchan. Somehow I collected all my guts and asked him to shake hands with me. After that, I asked him,"Do we get the same feel when we shake hands with Mr. Amitabh Bachchan?" He laughed and said,"Buddy, you hug me". And then I hugged Abhishek Bachchan. Now, do you think that I am writing this paragraph as if its a normal thing for me? Oh come on. I am not from that fake class of people to show off here that I am made up for all this. All this is a complimentary benefit that God is giving me for treating life as the biggest jewelry that he has granted me with. After the whole show when I was returning back to home by local train, I was thinking how much effort is needed to be in the elite class that I experienced for whole 11 hours on the day, 12th November, 2013. For the whole journey of 1.30 hours of Local, I was thinking and planning my life for next 10 years so that I would be there with them after a decade or two. :-) Let's see. But I would like to thank all of you for wishing best and praying selflessly for me because of which I get to experience such beautiful things in life. I know you are as much happy as me. :-) 

 Love you.

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!!