Have you ever been a child?
No, I’m not talking about the one that was years ago. I’m talking about the child inside you. I’m talking about bursting into laughter as if that happiness will never end by liberating your soul, not thinking about tomorrow, wiping your tears. Chasing your dreams even though you know that they will never come true.
Have you ever experienced this feeling?
When I was a child, I’ve always dreamt of being an actor. Now, I’m sure you’ll tell me that many children might have dreamt about it. So what’s the difference?
Well, that’s not what you think it is. This one is a little bit strange, a little bit different. I’m talking about the love between a child of a Turkish worker family who was grown up in Germany and a VHS tape which was brought home one day by his sister.
It was a shining, illuminating, silver-colored tape with writings in some language that he did not recognize. He would later realize that it was an Indian movie. The leading role of that film Mithun Chakraborty was going to be the Hero and idol of his youth.
Years passed, my dreams of being an actor came to naught, life has wrought me a different road as it does to anybody. But I’ve never forgotten the year 1988, the beginning of that story and lifelong love. Hundreds of amazing scenes, sometimes sadness, sometimes laughter, a world full of dreams.
One day, I would go to India and see Mumbai, the capital of Bollywood. I knew that I would never have the chance to see one of my heroes but I was going to smell the air, calling to the world that I came, that there I was. I was never going to be the leading actor in the screens but my inner world…
Though I had traveled to many countries, I never had the chance to go to India. It seems that it was meant for that year, 2016. When I first landed in Mumbai, the first thing to do was to go after the world of Bollywood. I was going anywhere which had something to do with this magical world.
I had notepaper in my hand on which there was a name of a store which sold original Bollywood posters according to an article which was written years ago. I asked everybody. To cab driver, street vendor, hotel clerk even to waiters. Unfortunately, there was no sign of it. I did not hear about it for days.
When my last hope was extinguished and the last day of my travel finally came, I met a cab driver named Abdullah, standing in front of a hotel. Just as I was stepping out of the hotel door, he called out to me:
“Hey, Turk!”.
I asked him how he knew that I was a Turk. He told me that he had stayed in Turkey for about 8 years and understood that I was Turkish when I was murmuring to myself. After we had a deep conversation about India and world politics, he asked me where I wanted to see the most.
I took a note paper out of my pocket which almost melted due to the hot weather in Mumbai and showed it to him. He told me that he could not exactly remember the location, but mentioned that it was in Chor Bazaar. At that very moment, my eyes were glittering. That excitement inside me, that childish soul was indescribable. You could only live to feel it.
We promised each other to meet at 8 am the next morning...
When I settled again in my hotel room in the evening, it was like the hours, minutes did not come to pass. I could not sleep. I was still feeling those fragrant, printed movie posters in my hand. I had knocked at the door of the car when Abdullah was already asleep for two hours inside the taxi.
After he straightened up and took a look at his watch, he told me to get in and started the car. And there we were going, going after a dream of my life.
About an hour later, he dropped me by one of the entrances of Chor Bazaar and we agreed on meeting at the same place an hour later. The same notepaper in my hand, I was asking for the store and looking around with a funny smile.
Eventually, half an hour later, a locksmith told me to walk till the end of the street and the store was on the left. My feet slowed down and the excitement built up. I was feeling like shortly after Mithun was going to show up. When I turned left, I saw a store named “Poster Stuff” just as it was depicted.
I opened the door slowly and when I saw thousands of movie posters lined up inside, I felt like a huge burden of years was removed from my back. I was as light as a feather.
The boy who entered the store right after me and whose name was Khalim as I came to know later, was left in charge of the store by his brother. He was constantly asking me something but I wasn’t listening. How could I?
There was a life experience on each and every one of these pieces of paper that I was touching. Rishi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty, Jeetendra, Dharmendra, Anil Kapoor, Amrish Puri, Amir Khan, Kader Khan, Sri Devi, Meenakshi, Rekha and many more legends that I could not count were standing right before me.
I was touching these masterpieces with a doctor’s tenderness during a heart operation. The boy was taking the posters down and up again and again. There were hundreds of posters before me, coming one after another. At that moment I wanted to buy them all. But I had neither the money nor enough space in my baggage. I decided on some of the posters and paid for them.
Then I received permission from Khalim to stay in the room alone for a while. Abdullah was going to meet me an hour later. Two and a half-hour passed. But that was it. I had to live at that moment. While looking at those precious pieces out of life itself, lined up on the shelf and hung up on the wall, my eyes watered. As I was sighing for all those people that were once in my life and now gone, my whole life was flashing before my eyes.
I formed a mental picture of a boy hiding behind the movie machinist. I sensed a smell of a fresh press odor from these posters which were collected meticulously. I closed my eyes for a minute and said “and action” in my mind.
A whole childhood, a great hope fitted into a silver-grey tape…
When my time was over, I turned and took a last look inside. And these lines from the movie Om Shanti was ringing in my ears:
‘’It is saying that if you really desire something from the heart.. then the whole universe will work towards getting you that.’’
I don’t know if the whole universe worked for it but this little child sacrificed his life for his little dream. And it was worth it…
If you want to have your dreams come true as well, do not wait any longer, take your luggage and fly to India, the incredible one!
Author: Harun Resit Aydin
How beautiful it says in the song Main Agar Kahoon from the movie Om Shanti:
‘’Tumko Paya Hai To Jaise Khoya Hoon I have found You and I have lost myself Kehna Chahoon Bhi To Tumse Kya Kahoon Even if I want to speak, I don’t know what to I say Tumko Paya Hai To Jaise Khoya Hoon I have found You and I have lost myself Kehna Chahoon Bhi To Tumse Kya Kahoon Even if I want to speak, I don’t know what to I say
Kisi Zabaan Mein Bhi Woh Lafz Hi Nahi There is no language in which there are those words Ki Jin Mein Tum Ho Kya Tumhein Mein Bata Sakun Which I use to completely describe what I feel for You..’’