To sirji, with love

tv.jpg

Dear Aamir Sirji,
Aapko shat-shat pranam.

Sirji, you will recall, last summer desh mein bahut discontent tha, aur hum sab ne bahut dhakke khaye, Jantar Mantar pe. Kuch kele bhi. Ab phir garmi ka mausam hai, but thank god that this year aap ka badlav ka movement hamare ghar ke comfort mein hai. Hum sab, with family, aap ke darshan kar sakte hain, and “Yes” SMS karke change laa sakte hain.
Sir, when you came home, on May 6, on Satyamev Jayate (Star Plus), Krishnaji and Ramji ke time slot mein, ek warm si feeling aayi. Suna tha that jab-jab dharti pe paap increase hoga, tab-tab godly log will arrive to take stern action.
We all know that godly log grand gestures mein believe karte hain. Krishnaji ne Arjun ko inspire karne ke liye viraat roop dikhaya. Mosesji parted water. Gandhiji ne an-shan kiya. Rosa Parks baithi rahin. Aur aap sir, aap hamein aaina, mirror dikhayenge, for 13 weeks, because you want that hamari surat badalni chahiye... aag lagni chahiye”. Lagegi sir, zaroor lagegi.
Sir, you know, we Indians are a lazy lot. Schizophrenic, too. We disconnect from our actions, but apne actions ke impact pe angry bhi hote hain. Like Arjun, we need a sarathi. And that is how we see you.
Sir, though I have some small-small problems with how you dealt with the female foeticide issue — like, jab you agreed that “atyachaar sehne walla bhi doshi hai” and piled guilt on all the women who have or are suffering — the fact is that jaise aapne is samasya ko explain kiya, uski root tak gaye, and then Rajasthan jaa ke action bhi liya, dil mein umeed jaagi. Female foeticide ko toh hum ne tackle kar liya. What’s next?
Aamirji, Papa kehte hain that you are a great showman. It’s true. Aap ke show mein you cry, we cry. Then you explain the problem to us with maps and graphics, then you show us something to smile about, then you offer a solution to the samasya and, finally, you leave us with a healing satsang.
Sir, thank you for giving us a theme song for every problem, all 13 of them. It’s a fabulous idea, because when you return to your superstar life and again become inaccessible, hamari conscience ko jagane ke liye we can download ringtones, and to wake up others we can buy caller tunes.
Sir, please don’t think that I am being cynical. I am never in any doubt about my prem for my country, so then why will I doubt your sentiments. Just because you are an actor? Nahin sir.
But sir, ek problem hai. The mirror that you are shining in my face na, us mein mera ugly face toh thoda hazy hai, but aap ka glowing-glowing face bahut nicely and clearly dikhta hai, laughing karte hue, crying karte hue and, of course, scolding karte hue.
Sir, ek sawal. Kya saare saints ke egos big-big hote hain? Kya sab saints sanctimonious hote hain? Even those, I mean, the ones who charge Rs 3 crore for every appearance?

Aapki,
Suparna Sharma

Comments

Suparna, nice article! But

Suparna, nice article! But alas what an ending! Do you grudge it when you receive yr due salary or when other people get their due? Only a nice warm person like you cudve written such a fab piece. Thats why i found yr ending cryptic. You sound confused, was someone expressing him/herself while you were writing the final part? I'm curious.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/151458" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-ad2c613080b9b7f37036a9792e9c2a19" value="form-ad2c613080b9b7f37036a9792e9c2a19" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85657328" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.