Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The WishMaster

Every other job on earth is boring. Well, at least it does appear boring to the person who does it, although for a rank outsider it may appear as prestigious or enviable. It is human mentality and I guess almost 70% of the population on earth does fall into this category. I have no qualms in admitting that I belong to the elite 70%.

"Sir, the shot is ready. We can go for take." The assistant director's assistant is still in awe of me and I can clearly see it on his face. He looks like some college drop-out or one of those "you-are-handsome-to-be-on-silver-screen" keyed youngster who may have run away from home and must have found that the silver screen is just silver on front and dirty on the posterior.

Anyway I am not here to advise him as I myself fought with my dad and it took me good old 15 years to make a mark. Today I am paid a bloody hefty sum to play any role from comedian to character to villain and I am proud to say that I am versatile. That is the only thing that has stuck me in this big bad industry. My popularity was the only reason they offered me to host this program where I get to roam so many places and meet so many new people.

If you are wondering why the hell the starting paragraph and next one differ, then hang on. I am coming to it. Agreed that the program did appear new in the initial days, but it seemed boring when I kept on doing the same thing over and over. Today I am in some city in Andhra and I hope that at least this episode turns out to be good.

"Sir, ready? Take 1. Camera. Rolling. And Action"

That is the sign that I have to come to life. Here I come alive oh my dear TV viewers.

"Hello Everyone. Welcome to another episode of your favorite program 'WishMaster'. As usual today I am your host and we will meet some people and make their dreams come true. So let's see whom we meet today."

Usually I don't meet the participants before hand. It spoils the surprise and more over the chemistry wears down as I get to know them before hand. It is my style to meet them fresh along with my viewers and it is the only part that is fun.

"So hi there. What is your name young lady?"
"Hi. I am Shanti."
"Hello Shanti. You know what Shanti means?"
"Peace"
"So you never fight?"
"You want the truth?"
"You want to tell it?"
"Ok. I usually dont."
"And what do you do unusually?"
"I walk away from the person who makes me angry and cry alone."
"Don't you want to yell and shred the person to pieces?"
"What is the point? The damage is done. So I dont do it."
"And you decide to take it on yourself?"
"I can handle it. So I just cry for a while and come to terms with it."
"And you forgive them?"
"Depends. If they do realize and apologize I do forgive."
"Wow. You are quite a character Shanti."
"Thank you Sir."

"So you watch my movies?"
"I don't see many hindi movies Sir. But I have seen some of yours. Your last movie made me laugh a lot. You are very talented Sir."
"Oh. That's quite a compliment. Thanks. So who is your favorite actor Shanti?"
"Chiranjeevi."
"Oh Chiru? What do you like about him?"
"I like the way he dances. he is effortless. His action, comedy (pause) everything Sir."
"Wow. We have a die hard Chiru fan here. That's great."
"I don't miss his movies."

"Wow. So Shanti. Coming to the program, you know the way it works right?"
"Yes Sir. You select a person randomly. Ask them their wish. Then you have a small competition and then grant that wish."
"Good. Glad you completed my part of job for which my producer pays me (laugh)"
"Anytime Sir."
"So Shanti. Tell me, what is your wish?"
"You can fulfill it Sir?"
"We try. There was a case when a person wanted to dip in a pool full of money. Then once a weirdo asked for a wish to act in a scene with ShahRukh. If possible we do do it."
"(thinks) I donno Sir."
"Come on Shanti. There is must be something."
"I had thought of something. Donno if its possible."
"You want to act with Chiru in one scene?"
"(pause) Is it possible?"
"We can try. Are you ok with it?"
"(pause) Can I have one more wish granted?"
"Ok. Tell me Shanti"

She paused. At that instant her eyes dramatically turned moist. There was a pain in her eyes which could never be achieved by any glycerin on earth. She spoke her next words in almost a whisper.

"I don't want to die. I want to live for some more time."

She cried and hugged me. For the first time on the show I was speechless. Shanti, an inmate of home for HIV positive patients, was counting her days and today her outburst came alive.

The camera kept rolling as no one had the heart to say Cut.

For once I wished I was God.

P.S: Inspired from an old episode of Aerial Mr.Gold which I remembered for no reason.

19 comments:

Dreamzz said...

//For once I wished I was God.
/
LOL.. I would have wished I wasnt..
Cause, I am planning on beating the hell(ROFL) out of him when I see him ;)

Subramanian Ramachandran said...

machaaaaaaaaaaan......... chanceh illa......

wait let me get over the emotions :)

i know there wud be a twist at the end of the story.... ( u r a renowned twister :p), but twist ennava irukumnu yosikka konjam kooda time kodukkama, opening la, narration was so goood.....

the way you have narrated, the intro, appuram the life of a T.V anchor turned film actor - this deserves lots of mention..... mind ah vera engayum think panna vidama appadiye story la pidichi vachathu these things...

and then.......as the story proceeded....... i knew, shanthi is going to ask some wish, something something nu theiryum..... antha mindset oda than padichen....aaana aana..... i was dumbstruck when she actually asked her wish...

meyyalume solraen... this is too good a story.... easily one of the best i have read in blogger world.... :) u can send this one for any contest i feel :)

Anu said...

awesome... wat a post!!

I did think it was goin on a rollercoaster when i read the first 2 paragraphs... but after that it was simply Harish(i don get enough adjectives nowadays)

"For once i wished i was god!!!"
(i guess we all say that atleast once in our lives)

Aravind said...

gud one machi.

how did ya arrive at that 70% thing. there shud be some percentage of ppl who don like any job :P.

i remember the song Ariel Mr gold varugirarr... anupam kher..

G3 said...

:( - Kadhaiyoda sogathukku

unga narrationkku - :))

Anonymous said...

Excellent!

Priya Iyer said...

wow! too good, but sad! :(

Anonymous said...

Wow! nice touchy story. Reminds the stories of chicken soup series... well written.

Anonymous said...

That was truly a great adaptation. Its true isnt it as it to what kind of smugs we can be until we are faced with such a reality that brings all the smugness crashing down. You are suddenly brought to confront the naked and often ugly reality.

No we are not omnipotent. But we have the ability to make a fellow human being happy.That is what these moments of truth tell us.

prithz said...

Whoa! That was quite a twist!

As subbu anna says, you hardly let the reader judge some kind of ending to your post, for you always keep them engrossed in your prose, waiting to discover the twist you are to offer!

Sat said...

hehehe....just wondering if it does happen on tv now; what would be the reaction
we'll have random comments flocking the shows website praying for the girl vs the smart alecs calling ehr a fake
or an attention seeker....you tube would have stacked up videos, only to be removed later for copyright violation and made a laughing stock of the anchor.
or may be i'll just open my internet explorer the next morning to find a sensational headline (i never bother changing the home page which is msn.com by the way!) on the lines of....HIV victim's melodramatic outburst!
frankly...i would have laughed it off saying...ppl can be so naive!
or..rolled my eyeballs and said 'too much!'

Dhivya said...

nice one...as usual awesome ending! You narration really does grab ther reader's attention and keep it there...That's quite a power to have as a writer.

Anonymous said...

that was a very good one..:) the non-comedy twist at the end was emotional!!! I got goosebumps..

CVR said...

Wonderful narration!!
Rock on!! :-)

Harish said...

@Dreamzz
I guess everyone of us is too :P

@RS
Vanakkam thalai. Feels so good that you like it. More than a regualr twist it was a human touch that I relished in this the most.

@Anu
hee hee...now that is too much. We all happen to go through such a pahse in our life :-)

@Arvind
Ade daan Maamu. I dont know how I remembered this episode so well :(

Harish said...

@G3
:-) :(

@Aparna
Thanks yaar :-)

@Priya
Sometimes life is like that :(

@Srikanth
Thanks yaar :-)

Harish said...

@Nivi
"But we have the ability to make a fellow human being happy"
Exactly. That is one gift we all have :-)

@Prithz
That is where I derive a great amount of pleasure in your happiness :-)

@Sat
haa haa....you said it. Thanks to media everything comes under spotlight whether we like it or not.

Harish said...

@Dhivya
I try my best :-)

@Sweety
I felt the same when I watched it on screen.

@CVR
Welcome Boss. Thanks a ton :-)

Gayathri said...

Nice :)