Mumbai, Dilip Kumar etc............

(It was the end of July, 2009. Accompanied by my father, I headed to Mumbai to start my PhD. I was quite excited to be in Mumbai for the first time. It is said that Aamchi Mumbai, the dreamland to many, welcomes every newcomer graciously. Well, within the first few hours after stepping in Mumbai, I came across something interesting!)

The train arrived too late, and we landed in the C.S.T. terminus a couple of hours post midnight. Feeling very tired and weary, we decided to spend that night in the station retiring room instead of going to the institute at Colaba. Papa had a return ticket for the next day, so we could book a room very smoothly. A caretaker led us to the allocated room. On the way, he kept on asking many things to Papa, where we are from, the purpose of the visit etc. Having heard that we are from Assam, he spoke quite excitedly, "Wo to bahut achhi jagah hain, maine bahut saare film me dekha hain!" (Wow, that's an amazing place. I have seen it in many movies!) Then the discussion quickly turned towards movies. They discussed about some old movie (I don't remember the name, but the hero was Dilip Kumar), Papa figured out the name at once and that had made the caretaker speak enthusiastically, "Saab, aap bahut achhe log ho, aap bhi Dilip ji ke fan ho. Bahut achha kiya baby ji ko itna dur bhej diya padhai karne ke liye. Uski saare armaan pure ho!" (Sir, you are also a fan of Dilip ji, you are very good. It is so nice of you that you have sent your daughter so far to study. May all her wishes come true!) Then he turned to me and said, "Baby ji, bahut achhe se padhai karna. Jyada movies mat dekhna. Aaj kal ke saare hero ne to Dilip Ji ka copy karta hain. Yeh Shahrukh kuch bhi original nehi karta. Saab ji, inhe jyaada picture dekhne mat dena. Baby bigad jayegi"..(Study well, and don't watch movies. Now-a-days all the heros only copy Dilip Kumar. Even ShahRukh does not do any original action. Sir, please don't allow her to watch many movies, she will get spoiled)

P.S. Papa asked him what his name was. He replied with a proud smile...

...Dilip Kumar Bhujbal!