THE CELEBRITY© - Part II An original story by Archana (Roli Siddhant) OUTSIDE BIG BAZAAR, PARKING LOT – LATE EVENING Siddhant is in pure dilemma as he cradles the unconscious girl in his arms. Wild fans click photos and capture the ‘event’ live and upload it to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube etc. It’s only a matter of minutes before the video of Siddhant kneeling on the ground and holding an unconscious fan begins to circulate on the internet with titles like… ‘Girl faints after seeing superstar Siddhant Bharadwaj’ ‘Handsome hunk Siddhant Bharadwaj makes out with a hot teen in broad daylight’ ‘Siddhant Bharadwaj with his wife’ ‘Hottie Siddhant with young sizzling actress on location for his new movie’ and many more absurd titles with no connection to the actual fact! Siddhant looks around frantically. He has never been in a situation like this. Well… with Roli maybe… but not with a strange girl. And that too a fan! “Someone, water please!” he almost begs. “Hey! Someone give him some water!” From the crowd, someone hands Siddhant a bottle of Coke. “What’s this?” he asks surprised. “For you sir,” someone replies. “Arrey yaar!” he snaps, exasperated, “I need water to sprinkle on her face!” Meanwhile, Roli works up a sweat as she shoulders her way past the crowd towards her husband. “Bhai saab, please let me past!” she tries to be polite as she makes her way through the crowd. One of the guys cast a dirty look at Roli and grabs her by the shoulder. “Don’t worry sweetie, don’t be so desperate” he comments, “You’ll get your chance too. And even if you don’t, we’re here! We’re not that bad either!” Roli pauses, furious and uncomfortable at having been touched by a stranger. “And what the hell do you mean by that?” The man gives her a nasty look. “Well, you know…” He starts to rub her shoulder. SLAP! Roli lands an instant super shot on his face. “Chee! Get your hands off me dammit!” The man boils with anger and humiliation. “How dare you!” Roli doesn’t hang around for even a single second. She begins to run through the crowd. She doesn’t stop, she doesn’t care even if she pushes someone, she just runs for her dear life! She’s in trouble. Big trouble!!! “Siddhantji!!!” she cries out. Siddhant sprinkles some water over his fainted fan’s face. She flinches for a moment and then slowly comes around. She opens her eyes and looks around, confused. What’s going on? Then she realizes that someone is holding her. She looks up at that person. Siddhant! He looks back at her in panic. “Are you okay?” he asks, concerned. She gasps! “Oh my God! Sidd---“ “Hey, just calm down will you?” he begs. She faints in his arms. Again! Grrrr!!! Hey Uparwaale! Siddhant wonders, why me???!!! “Siddhantji!!!” Siddhant looks up. That’s Roli’s voice. “Roli!” he calls out. He cranes his neck and sees Roli pushing her way through the crowd. She looks frightened, as if she’s been chased by a mad dog. “Siddhantji! Help!” she cries out. Siddhant lays down his fan and hurries towards Roli. “Roli! Over here!” “Who’s Roli?” asks someone from the crowd. “Is she your girlfriend?” “Maybe his wife!” “Could be his new heroine!” Siddhant is tempted to reply, “No, she’s your Momma!” but he restrains himself. Roli runs into Siddhant’s arms, frightened. “Hey Roli, are you okay? What happened? Why are you so worried?” He follows Roli’s glance to the cheeky guy in the crowd. Siddhant instantly understands that this guy was troubling her. He begins to charge at the man, but Roli grabs him by the arm. “Siddhantji! No! Let’s leave! Hurry!” Siddhant and Roli hurry towards their car. Cameras flash like crazy. Wild fans scream and faint all around them. Some burst into hysterical sobs. Others say dirty, offensive stuff! They jump into their car and push off from there as soon as they can! A moment later, they are on the streets, headed to the theatre. Siddhant is still dazed. He can’t believe what just happened. Never in his life had he encountered such a situation. I guess this is all part of stardom, he thinks, the price of stardom is loss of freedom? Maybe I shouldn’t have gone into all this stuff! Have I made a mistake? He looks over at Roli. Roli has ‘pissed off’ written all over her face. “What did that guy do to you?” he asks quietly. She doesn’t reply. She seems to be lost in thoughts. “Roli?” “Just stop in front of that shop,” she blurts out. “Another shop? Arrey baba, let’s buy all this dal baal later on, na? I’m worn out already.” “Just stop!” she repeats firmly. Oh shit, thinks Siddhant. She is serious. Damn serious. He pulls over. “You sit here, I’ll be right back,” says Roli as she steps out of the car. “What? Where are you going? Yaar, Prem will buy all this stuff. You get back in here” She doesn’t respond. But simply walks away. Siddhant gets out of the car. “Roli! Arrey Roli!” Roli pauses and turns around. “Siddhantji, do you want one thousand people to pounce on you again?” The incident back at Big Bazaar has a ‘post traumatic’ effect on Siddhant as he relives the situation. “No!” he grins. “Then get back in the car and sit quietly,” says Roli seriously, “I’m not famous, so I’ll be okay. In fact, if it weren’t for you, that man wouldn’t have grabbed me back there.” Siddhant gapes in disbelief. “What? He grabbed you? How dare he?” “Yes,” Roli responds casually as if nothing happened, “He did. Now if you don’t get back in, more people might grab me.” “Roli!” he protests, “you sound like I’m going around asking everyone to come and grope you! What the hell!” “Chup! Finger on lips! Get in the car! Don’t waste my time!” she orders and walks away. Siddhant watches on hopelessly as she disappears into the nearby shop. He bangs his fist on the bonnet. “Arrey yaar!” he growls angrily. What is she upto? He wonders. He paces up and down restlessly as he waits for her. What’s taking her so long? What if something is wrong? What if she is trouble? His worry begins to consume him by the minute. Dammit! He thinks. I’m going in there. I can’t just let her go somewhere by herself like that! ……… TO BE CONTINUED
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 13:55:54 +0000
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