Star-struck

When we arrived in Mumbai in May 2004, I saw Shah Rukh Khan at the airport baggage claim. He had beautiful blond highlights in his hair, and later A. was convinced to style his hair the same way.

I saw Salman Khan's brother, such a forgettable and unpleasant looking actor that I have forgotten his name, on the lift at Lilavati Hospital, as I was coming from an appointment with my doctor. I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out where I knew that weird-looking guy from, then another 10 minutes looking for a PCO, so I could call A. and tell him about having spent 2 minutes on the lift with this guy.

I saw Govinda in the cafeteria at Lilavati Hospital; he looked sad and burdened, probably because his wife and child were in the ICU there. I felt sad for him as fans still approached him for autographs. Later I told my mother-in-law about the sighting. "Was he looking fat?" was her question.

I saw Abhishek Bachhan (along with a machine-gun-toting bodyguard) near the room where I got my last ultrasound, on the eve of Pista-Kishmish's delivery. (Apparently Amitabh himself was inside the x-ray room.)


That same day, I saw Anupam Kher as he walked through the ultrasound waiting area. We also saw many more stars at Lilavati that day, but many of them only A. recognized.

I saw Suniel Shetty at. . . um, at Lilavati Hospital. It was nearly midnight, and I had finally come to terms with the fact that the babies really did need to be delivered. My semi-urgent operation was first thing in the morning, and we had delayed and delayed our trip to the hospital. By the time we got there, the grand sliding doors by the fountain were closed, and we had to walk all the way around the hospital and enter through Casualty. We then had to walk through the inside of the hospital, back to the sliding doors, just inside which the admissions desk was located. As we finally made it there, with our bags and our parcels, not to mention my big pregnant self, the doors slid wide open and in walked Suniel Shetty. I was livid. In my truly embarrassing Hindi I demanded loudly of the security guard, "A 9-months-pregnant girl has to walk so far and can't come in through these doors and has to walk all the way to casualty, and this Suniel Shetty can walk right in the front doors just like that?" The security guard just looked back at me with a blank, helpless look, because of course the answer to that question is, "Yes."

So with all these sightings, why was I so happy to see this guy at a Pizza Hut in Powai?

Even I don't know. But, readers, if you can identify this star (and I use that term very loosely, in the case of this individual) you win Desperate Chickoo's very first contest!

Good luck!