THE DAY I MET A CELEBRITY AND AN HONEST AUTOWAALA

The day was 2nd November 2009. It was just like any other normal day. The only difference from the other normal days was this day I met a celebrity. It did not change my life in any manner, but felt good that I got a chance to meet the acclaimed violinist, Dr. L Subramanium all because of an honest autowaala.

I had to visit my neurologist, Dr. Sreenivasa at Ramaiah hospital in Bangalore this day. I had taken couple of weeks off for my brothers wedding in October ending on 1st week of november. Initially I thought of taking an appointment in mid October before I go to kerala for the wedding. But since I was occupied with the wedding and reception preparations, decided to postpone the appointment to 2nd November.
So all went well and my brother and bhabhi went for their honeymoon trip. So here I was with just few more days left in Bangalore as I had to travel back to pune to report to work. As I said earlier, I had an appointment on 2nd November to visit my neurologist. My mother accompanied me to the hospital that day and we decided to travel by auto rickshaw. Now, anyone who has travelled in a rickshaw in Bangalore will be very much aware about the rudeness and the unreasonable charge demanded by most of the autowaalas. Each time I’ am in need to catch an auto I get irritated just thinking about their attitude. And they charge such an exorbitant sum of money; you will be made to think that they just gave you a ride in a Ferrari in a race circuit. The ride in an auto is not less adventurous though, as they take all kinds of twists and turns whenever they get a chance. I would just wonder what would be the plight of the poor pedestrians if he was riding a bike or a car instead.

Coming back to the topic, on a good day I think everything goes well. I saw an auto on the other side of the road, so immediately I crossed the road and asked him if can take us to ramaiah hospital. Very humbly, he agreed at once. My mother had to still cross the road and since she had to cross a divider in between, the autowaala waited for her very patiently to get in. I also noted that he kept an eye on the moving vehicles to see that my mom crossed the road safely. The journey to the hospital hardly took 15 minutes. Somewhere near sanjaynagar, we saw an old lady trying to jump a big hole dug in front of her house. It was a very funny sight to look at the trap laid by our bengaluru corporation, the hole was dug up and left as it is, may be they wanted to experiment to see if a car can be parked in that hole :). So our autowaala gave a piece of advice for our trapped lady and asked her to be very careful, if at all she wanted to do any stunts to cross that hole :). I was impressed by his caring nature for the general public as he waited for sometime in case she needed any help and then he proceeded with the journey.

So after a smooth ride we reached the hospital and as I got down from the auto, the first thing the autowaala asked was not for money, but he pointed to a swamiji standing nearby the entrance of the hospital and said ‘that swamiji is a well known and powerful man’. I was not sure who that swamiji was, but I saw another short and familiar person standing next to him. I then asked the autowaala for the autocharge and he being very sincere charged according to the meter. Usually meters in autos are just a showpiece which comes as a fitting to complete the definition of an auto. Autowaalas generally do no want to disturb the meter so that they can demand any sum of money which they like, so the meter remains useless most of the times. So I was happy that this guy was really sincere to his profession. We then wished thank you to each other and he left in search of his next customer. My mom immediately said to me that very strangely we get to see such a nice and honest autowaala and I also agreed.

As I was about to enter the hospital, I again stared at that familiar short person and he too stared back at me. Usually if you come across a familiar person, but if you can’t remember exactly who he/she is, you put a question mark on your face and stare at that person and wait for the other person to recognize and respond to your awkward look on your face. But he did not give any such kind of known response to me, so I dismissed the thought that he also knew me and I moved on.
Later when I was sitting at the hall waiting for my call to see the doctor, I saw the same familiar person sitting alongside the swamiji and another boy on the other side of the hall. It then clicked to my lethargic mind that he was none other than the renowned violinist, Dr. L. Subramanium. I immediately asked my mom as well about this person and she also recognized him. The boy who was sitting beside him was his son. I was so thrilled that I immediately called up my brother, me totally forgetting that he was at lakshwadeep at this time celebrating his honeymoon and I gave him this news. He asked to do something which never occurred in my mind i.e to get an autograph of the legend. I was in two minds whether to disturb him or not as he was sitting as any other concerned patient as others in the room. But I took courage and decided to go ahead and speak with him anyway. Even my mom encouraged me to do so.

I took a piece of paper out of my purse but I did not have a pen. So I requested for a pen from a nearby guy and took slow steps towards Dr.Subramanium and stood right in front of him. He just looked at me without any change in his expression, waiting for me to say something. I then asked him with a smile on my face ‘I guess you are Dr. Subramanium ?’. for which he responded very politely ‘yes, I’ am Subramanium’
I was not prepared to ask or say anything, so without any further thoughts I handed over the piece of paper alongwith my purse to keep it as base for him to write and asked him for an autograph. He agreed by nodding his head and said ‘yes’ and took my pen to write something. He then asked my name and made me to spell it as well, so he ensured that he wrote down my name correctly. While he was writing I noted that he was such a calm and composed person that I did not feel as if I’ am standing in front of a genius musician. Such was his simplicity. I was also surprised that none of other public sitting in that room recognised him. Then he handed over the autographed paper alongwith my purse and the pen and wished me good luck. The swamiji who was also sitting next to him gave me the impression as if he was ready to assume meditation at any moment :). But he also gave a warmth look at me and we exchanged smiles.

I thanked Dr.Subramanium and I left towards the place where my mom, who was watching all this happen, was waiting for me with a smile in her face.
Later I saw Dr. L. Subramanium, his son and smamiji being led to a private room for consultation with another neurologist. Now I thought about the honest autowaala because of whom I was able to identify this great violinist. I then waited for my name to be called to meet my neurologist, with the autographed piece of paper in my hand which now had some significance to its existence. It read like this.

Dear Praveen V S,

I wish you all the best,

Subramanium’s signature