Sapno Ka Shaher

48. The Rising Sun

Sameer stood out of respect when he saw Aruna Irani approaching him and he turned nervous as she came closer. He knew he would be sharing screen with her, not today though. And hence her walking to him to talk randomly caught him off guard.

"Sameer, na?" Arunaji asked. She was in her costume, wearing a blue saree.

"Ji Ma'am." Sameer replied politely. He was surprised that THE ARUNA IRANI remembered his name.

"Set ka pehla din hai aaj?"

"Ji."

"Tum hamesha hi itna observe karte ho ya aaj kuchh special hai?" she teased him, leaning closer towards Sameer.

Sameer blushed, he was caught for the first time while observing the sets. "Nahi... bass... aadat hai."

Arunaji smiled warmly, "jaante ho? Mujhe bhi aisehi observe karne ki aadat hai," she said, "aur mujhe behad khushi hoti hai jab mai mere jaise artists se milti hu."

Sameer heaved deeply, posting a subtle smile and feeling good to have received a compliment from a person who has years of experience in this industry. Doesn't matter if it was just for his observation skills.

"Carry on," Arunaji patted on Sameer's arm and left, giving Sameer one more reason to stay happy for the entire day.

The major reason for him to be happy since yesterday was Aditya, the situation at his home. In these two weeks, he had recognised that convincing Mr. Gopal Gadkari to accept Aditya's choice of work wouldn't be so easy. After listening to Aditya's story, Sameer discerned how the environment of the Gadkari house was a mixt of progressive thoughts but also some rigid beliefs.

They had accepted the love marriage of their elder son and welcomed Sejal, a Gujrati girl, wholeheartedly in their family. Also how Mrs. Gadkari never followed the customs blindly, she always knew some scientific reasons behind it. But at the same time, Mr. Gadkari had really given Aditya a tough time while pursuing him to get into a job and now while accepting his dream.

There was a scope for a change though, as Sameer perceived. The more he immersed himself in writing the letter for Aditya, the more he understood human emotions, their relationships and their intricacies.

He had soon realized that one letter wouldn't be enough for a strong and strict man like Mr. Gopal Gadkari. Sameer believed that Mr. Gadkari needed to understand a few things about his own son too. And he decided to write a series of letters on behalf of Aditya to his father.

The first letter was clearly an apology letter. Nothing more in it. It was an apology from a son to his father about hiding some important things of his life, about lying to him innumerable times and keeping him and the whole family in the dark about his dreams.

Aditya was scared to give that letter to Mr. Gadkari, but Sameer had insisted him to give it personally; he had ensured that Mr. Gadkari didn't seem like a person who would raise his hand on his children. Aditya had finally handed the letter to his father in the garden of the society. Sameer had also given him the dialogues to say and being his writer's actor, Aditya adhered to it strictly, without rambling much. The ego of the hurt father hadn't let Mr. Gadkari open the letter then and there, but as reported by Sejal later, he had read it in his study room alone, turning pensive afterwards.

That day, Sameer had seen Aditya smiling genuinely after a long time. He was relieved to see that the plan they'd devised for Mr. Gadkari was hitting the right spots.

The next two letters were about Aditya's childhood and how he developed interest in the entertainment industry, how he tried finding his happiness in what his father wished for him but failed every time, how he secretly tried to go to the auditions and how acting was the only thing he found great satisfaction in.