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Serendipity and imagination are such wonderful things.
Allow me to weave the two together.
It doesn’t start with this photo, but I’ll start with it anyway. +
Allow me to weave the two together.
It doesn’t start with this photo, but I’ll start with it anyway. +
Last year, I spent 3 wonderful weeks in working from the hills in Landour, where, among other things, I discovered @stephenalter's Becoming A Mountain. As I have discovered during my various trips there, nothing moves one like the unmoving stillness of the mountains.
But I digress.
During the course of my daily morning runs while at Landour, I used to pass @VishalBhardwaj, out for his morning walk, almost everyday.
During the course of my daily morning runs while at Landour, I used to pass @VishalBhardwaj, out for his morning walk, almost everyday.
On the day before I headed out of Landour, I finally overcame my inherent shyness with approaching celebrities and asked him for a picture “because my wife is a huge fan of your wife’s singing.”
He kindly obliged.
He kindly obliged.
I, too, am grateful to him, and am his fan, for at least one thing. And I was thrilled with the picture because I was now separated by just one degree from someone else I'm a huge fan of too.
In all my trips to Landour, my one endeavor is to try and meet with @RealRuskinBond.
In all my trips to Landour, my one endeavor is to try and meet with @RealRuskinBond.
Once, making it to the fabled Cambridge Bookstore in Mussoorie to catch him on his weekly rendezvous there on Saturday afternoons, I was to be disappointed because the gout confined him to his home.
On this trip, the owner of the bookstore told me that with the coronavirus around, he was not getting out at all.
Sigh, I told myself, one of these days, hopefully.
Sigh, I told myself, one of these days, hopefully.
I made many a trip to Domas for lunch, his home being just two floors above it, in the hope of bumping into him while he got out for an afternoon walk. And while I enjoyed many a delicious thukpa and momo at Dolma’s, I never did get to see the man.
As you can tell, my talent for shyness is high.
“Why didn’t you just go up and knock on his door if you were so keen on meeting him?”
I had read somewhere that of the very few things that annoyed him, random people (especially adults) knocking at his door ranked very high.
“Why didn’t you just go up and knock on his door if you were so keen on meeting him?”
I had read somewhere that of the very few things that annoyed him, random people (especially adults) knocking at his door ranked very high.
So when I finally mustered up the courage to ask @VishalBhardwaj for a selfie with him, I was satisfied enough.
Allow me one more diversion here, on the notion of serendipity.
Allow me one more diversion here, on the notion of serendipity.
By themselves, the talents and accomplishments of both Vishal Bharadwaj and Ruskin Bond are legion. The former’s oeuvre is rare among Indian filmmakers, made even rarer by his musical and literary talents.
Of Bond’s various books (and I have devoured all of them), one of my absolute favorites is The Blue Umbrella. Many times have I traipsed alongside Binya with every step of her adventure, feeling her joy, her compassion for Ram Bharosa, her anger at Rajaram.
Perhaps no one could have brought it to life on film as faithfully, perhaps even more poignantly, as Vishal Bharadwaj did. And I wonder if the movie would ever have happened if Bond and Bharadwaj had not bonded over being neighbors in Landour.
The Saturday before I met and asked Vishal Bharadwaj for the selfie, I had given the owner of the Cambridge Bookstore a copy of the manuscript of my travel book. The first chapter begins with an homage to Bond.
And I wonder now if I had saved that copy, and had it handy with me, I could have given it to Bharadwaj to give it to his neighbor.
But then, that’s not how serendipity works, does it?
But then, that’s not how serendipity works, does it?
