Chance Encounter

I was sitting alone in Saravan Bhavan, engrossed in eating Idli, when a person walks up,
points to the empty chair in front of me and asks " Is this taken ?"
I say "No"
He smiles , gets his plate of food and sits in front of me.

And all this while, am thinking - this walk, this voice , this face is familiar. And then it hits me !
( pretty fast reaction this time around, usually I wonder for days together before I can place a person )
I ask him "Do you act in T.V..." - smile, nod, smile again, nod again from opposite before I finish
my sentence "... by any chance ?!"
me : "ABC DJ "? ( thats the name of the serial )
He : (laughs) "Yes yes but I do it just for fun ... "
And thus begins a conversation between part-time actor and amateur writer, here is a sneak peek into the informal chat for my readers ...

me : so you work full-time elsewhere?
He : yes, in a bank, you know they say Bankers are boring (emphatic nod from me) but they are not!
me : Its a very interesting thing - banking and acting ...
He : To break from the routine and whenever I have some free time on hand ... it also helps that my wife produces these serials.
me : Ohhh !
He : its a good experience - in that field , it doesn't matter what a bigshot you are.
( so he is a bigshot in banking ) There is a twenty-something girl giving directions ...
me : hmm ...she is the pro there while you are not ( I interrupt )
He : ( continues ) gives humility ... also while doing ABC DJ, got to know how poor people live in Singapore - I had to ride with labourers in a truck, visit a fishing village ...
all this I wouldn't have done otherwise ...
me : is it normal for you to be recognised in public, like this ?
He : well, not in the banking sector as bankers are not home by 8 pm to watch serials ( laughs, I join in )
More than ABC DJ, am recognised more by Singapore's first sitcom 'Under one roof', before cable arrived people were forced to watch it as there was no choice, like Doordarshan ;
airhostesses have recognised me ...and yes, children recognise me.
He cuts my trail of questions and asks about me. I say where I am from, what I do ...
He : Bangalore? Oh I come there often, maybe once a year, have relatives there
A mundane discussion on B'lore follows , this area, that locality and so on ...
And then he says -
"Actually am a Coorgi"
me : ( still not recovered from the shock of meeting a TV artist at lunchtime, who also happens to be a banking bigshot , now with my eyes almost popping out ) "So you can speak Kannada ?!"
He : " I understand Kannada ..."
me : "Do you speak Coorgi at home ?"
He : "Actually I have married a Parsi" ( Will this man not stop surprising me ? )
"and living in Singapore for a decade, languages get diluted"
By this time, he has finished lunch and its time to leave. We exchange visiting cards, utter the
usual niceties " Nice talking to you " ... and go our own ways.


I see the card to realise he is Senior Vice President of a famous bank and think
" hmm ... bankers aren't that boring afterall !"
while he must have thought " What an inquisitive girl !"