Famous people who know me

Children yoursquoll have to play in the other room nowrdquo said my friendrsquos mother ldquoAunty Indu is coming over for tea at 4rdquoWe were three of us friends from school and this was weekend playtime at the home of letrsquos call him Ash All we knew about Aunty Indu was that she was a family friend who worked in the government as did Ashrsquos mother We dutifully retreated to Ashrsquos roomAt 4 orsquoclock sharp the doorbell rang and we heard sounds of Aunty Indu and her family trooping in Some 10 minutes or so later we were summoned to say hello to Aunty InduSeated around the living room were Aunty Indursquos two sonsmdashRajiv and Sanjay daughterinlaw Sonia and 3yearold grandson dressed in a generalrsquos uniform with medalsAnd then there was Aunty Indu It would not be an exaggeration to say that we were speechlessYoursquod know Aunty Indu as Mrs Indira Gandhi Ashrsquos mother was her personal secretary For the rest of the afternoon we played with the fat little general as he strutted around the house His name was RahulThere are two kinds of peoplemdashthe ones who are famous and the others who like butlers stand in their reflected light and get some secondhand fame Irsquom definitely in the latter group I may die faceless and unknown but yoursquod be surprised by the number of celebrities whose air Irsquove breathedAunty Indursquos father who everyone called Chacha Nehru was the first truly famous person Irsquove seen He was waving to crowds from the back of an open jeep at the 1961 inauguration of the Indian Industries Fair at what is todayrsquos Pragati Maidan I could say he caught my eye and winked but that would be a lieThe Big B on the other hand definitely did not wink As JS magazinersquos cub reporter I had been sent to Bombay to hang out with an unknown newcomer called Amitabh Bachchan whose movie Anand has brought him into the national limelightMr Bachchan told me that for three days I could follow him wherever he went and snoop around at various studios More than the stars I was riveted by the ooparwallahs the daywage laborers who sat on the rafters high above the studio operating massive klieg lightsThe threepart series I wrote on the poor people behind the scenes in Bollywood clearly did not score any points with Mr Bachchan but I did not find this out till three years later at another studio That day I was among a few hundred people lining a darkened gangway as he and Zeenat Aman strolled back to their green rooms after a shot He passed me a face in the crowd but stopped a few paces down and turned around slowly to stare directly at meHe walked back to me straining to remember why I looked familiar Then he wagged his finger and said ldquoI remember now Yoursquore that boy Hmmm You know I really didnrsquot like what you wroterdquoIn the years that followed a string of celebrities and global elites had the pleasure of my acquaintance some even getting as close as two feet from me I was memorably trapped in an old Calcutta lift with George Harrison who snapped that he would never give me his autograph I stood six feet away from Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull at his Rang Bhavan concert His eyes passed over me several timesAnother time I saw my old friend Yasser Arafat an armrsquos length from me on the steps of Bangkokrsquos Shangrila Hotel I would have greeted him except his limousine arrived just then Stepping back to let him pass I bumped into my other old friend Henry Kissinger Excusing myself I picked myself up off the steps and smiled warmly at him as he lumbered past meYou could say that was my small contribution towards a lasting solution to the Palestine problemIn 1980 Niranjan Jhaveri founder of the Jazz Yatra concerts called me with an odd request A musician called Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner was doing a world tour with his threeman band called The Police and was keen to get a poster made for the band in Bombayrsquos local art style when they came to play at Rang Bhavan Would I be interestedI picked Bollywoodstyle wall art and created a poster with The Police as a threeheaded god above giant Sholaylike granite letters spelling The Police in HindiI walked down to the Taj Hotel to meet Mr Sumner when the poster was ready but bumped into him outside the Cottage Industries shopldquoYoursquore the poster fellowrdquo He askedldquoI amrdquo I said ldquoand herersquos your posterrdquoldquoOh very coolrdquo he said handing me R3000 We shook hands and partedYou might know Mr Sumner by his stage name They call him StingHere viewed from there C Y Gopinath in Bangkok throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai the city that raised him You can reach him at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper