Aamir meets Aamir

For this entry, I was going to provide details of the terrible devastation that tore through the Ladakh region on August 6, with the flash flood that carried the lives of over 150 people, with 800+ people still missing, but let me first begin with

I MET AND HAD A NATIONAL TV INTERVIEW WITH AAMIR KHAN. I CAN’T GET OVER IT. HUMANAHUMANAHUMANAGAAAAAGAAAAA!

(note: server is still out. Can't upload photos. It's killing me).

I know that this is possibly the worse thing to share with the world after a flash flood that killed hundreds of people, like chatting about who is going to win the Bombay Cricket Cup after 9-11, but I’m on a Twinkle Star high. My entire body is flushed with hormonal endocrine sparkles that are flowing from the tip of my head down to my dusty toes. Ever since I saw Aamir Khan in “Earth” and a singing forlorn taxi driver in Pardesi, I’ve felt he’s the most versatile actor to emerge from a film industry replete with love overdone, evil guys with mustaches and couples dancing in the Swiss hills ad nauseum. I’ve loved him ever since. In every unique film with his name plastered on the filmi poster, I have been fascinated with who he is going to play next, with what issue is going to be brought to the forefront with the wide reach Bollywood has over world audiences.

Oh yes, and we also happened to name our first-born son after him (yes friends, you know that about me).

Rumor had it Aamir Khan was visiting several schools in Ladakh, had donated several crore to the rehabilitation, and was running with the media to highlight the devastation. To meet him was a dose of karmic coincidence from several lifetimes ago. Maybe I saved people in a flood. Maybe Allah really is a Great Guy, as my hubby puts it.

My sister-in-law, her two daughters and I were visiting Stok village to meet with an old Buddhist friend of mine, and our taxi driver happened to be a friendly contact for a Buddhist lama, who was the right hand guy for this major Buddhist Rinpoche, who was Aamir Khan’s host par excellence around the region. He kept calling the Buddhist Lama to locate Aamir Khan, and thank goodness Buddhist Lamas keep cell phones on them these days, because around 6:30pm we got confirmation he was at Shey Monastery, driving a dark red Xylo SUV.

As the road converged from Stok to Choglamsar, our driver made a final confirmation call. We made a right turn toward Shey Monastery, and momentarily got blocked by a huge delivery truck and a spate of traffic, amidst collecting clouds of dust. (This actually made me really agitated, as if the billows actually could shrink minutes of opportunity). The blockage cleared, we sped through more insidious yellow clouds being whipped up from the road,and suddenly found ourselves driving straight towards a dark red Xylo. The vehicle pulls off to our right side of the road, andAamir Khan leaps out of the front seat with a white tee shirt and jeans, and walks to the stone border outside of the Dalai Lama’s summer property.

My sister-in-law is screaming.

We rapidly pop out of the car,I’m tempted to be snap happy as a manic paparazza, before realizing we are the first public visitors to be standing right next to him on the side of the road. The Aamir Khan entourage has, by sheer coincidence, stopped to conduct an interview with the accompanying television crew. Several bodyguards with branded tees are standing in a circumference around the actor in tough-guy cross-armed stance.

The next moment, my sister-in-law is getting an autograph, and the moment follows, I’m actually talking face to face with Aamir Khan. I tell him I’m American, from Orange County, California, working in LA, and then the inevitable comes out of my mouth, that yes, I named my son after him. At that moment, Aamir Khan opens his arms to hold Aamir Nordakh. Little Aamir screams “Noooo!”and clasped my entire torso like one of those Koala clips (if you ever knew what the feeling was like of wanting to eat your fist, that takes the crown). A camera lens is suddenly in my face, with a microphone from STAR TV news thrust in front of my mouth.

“Madam, you tell us how you became familiar with Aamir Khan? How do you feel about meeting Aamir Khan after naming your son after him?”

I feel hot drops forming on the tip of my nose. I start talking, as everything around me swirls to a murky hum while little Aamir squiggles uncomfortably in my arms.

“I’m speechless (chuckle from Aamir and interviewer) really I’ve always admired Aamir Khan for a long time for his unique films...like…uh…(pausing to think what that major film name was dammit)…3 idiots which addresses important issues like education and we’ve always been huge fans so to meet him here is amazing and I’ve always been a great admirer of his acting since being introduced to Bollywood several years ago….(profuse sweating as camera zooms in as I horrify myself by speaking the longest run-on sentence on human record, Aamir Nordakh then hitsmicrophone in annoyance and wants to suck it like a lollipop, which I’m sure sounds great in audio).

After blabbing for a minute, interviewer in Hindi: “And bada Aamir, do you have any words for chota Aamir?”

Aamir Khan speaks in Hindi, and tenderly places his hand on the side Little Aamir’s head. Little Aamir isn’t jiving with this entire situation at all. He starts screaming again. I missed his nap today. Perfect. Aamir Khan has a remedy. He whips out a Nestle chocolate bar and with a typical Khan gesture twiddles the package in front of Little Aamir between his fingers. Sudden silence. Little Aamir looks at the chocolate bar. Slowly takes it. Whispers a small “thank you” into the microphone. Smiles all around, even from tough bodyguards.

Little Aamir continues to ferociously scream at the camera lens to ‘go awaaaay’ like it’s the most horrid evil eye in the entire Southeast Asian continent. I am still trying to smile as serenely as possible as Aamir Khan and I chat a little more about his work. It strikes me that everything about this situation is very casual. There is a real ease about him, and a strong presence and focus. And I can’t frickin’ believe he’s standing right next to me, like a real entity made of flesh and blood rather than film. His face is filled out, eyes sparkling, his legs a little more bulky than the God of Six Pack that he was in Ghajini. After several minutes, the conversation naturally falls to close, we give each other a strong cordial handshake, and he’s off doing another interview with the same reporter.

Sidenote: I thought that with the lengthy film footage they acquired from him that I wouldn’t make the cut in the actual broadcast, because stupor and run-on sentences wouldn’t be good journalism. Two days afterwards, I find out that the footage including screaming Little Aamir on ZeeTV, Star News, and NDTV on August 19 from 8:30-10:30pm. As it goes in Leh, a bunch of folks saw it except me of course. Still working on acquiring the footage. I feel thrilled to have had it run, and the flip side, kind of chagrined that I sounded like a grammatical moron on national tv in a country of 1.3 billion people who speaks sophisticated British English.

As he’s conducting the second interview, I’m taking more photographs. Aamir Khan, for a moment in time, is looking right at me. Look away Lian! Is it the pink salwar? Aaaaa! Is it possible to fall in love with the image of a man when he's standing right next to you? Yes. Wait! Nooo. Stop it.

Aamir Khan finishes his interview, and amid a torrent of mosquitoes that are stinging the entire crew and my shoulders (a small price to pay), he gets back into the vehicle. He gives a small twinkle of a wave meant just for little Aamir, who is still whining, and then another look at me and a wave, before he's back on the road with an entourage of three SUVs.

My entire body is flushed. Later, I found out what King Aamir had told to little Aamir when speaking with the reporters in Hindi. He had essentially wished Aamir a lifetime where he gives happiness to others, and experiences happiness himself. To my little Aamir: when you are older, and you understand the people you have met, and places you have visited, and what you experienced, that is all I wish for you, that is all that is most important. After what we experienced here, when you come into existence, you arrive and face a lot of suffering, but we have a small time together with one another, to love one another. I'm so happy you chose me.