monalisa smile

the year i turned 19, my school mates and i arranged the 40th anniversary reunion of vns. it started off as a ploy just so we could hang around our familiar haunts for a while longer. we'd already taken the HSCs and our days were numbered till we'd no longer be welcome to the place that was integral to our adolescent identities. plagued by this seperation anxiety, we launched a project that tested our characters and ultimately decided the directions each of us would take in life.
one day during rehearsals after school hours, a very well-known, much-loved face peeked through the open door. it belonged to the talented actor suborna mustafa. she was the premier stage and tv star of her time. to date, she is the very best in the country. we'd all known that she was a school alumni but never in our wildest dreams did we expect to see her in the flesh at such an odd hour, completely unannounced and so uninhibited.
she had come to pay the alumni dues for the re-union. talking to the girls like an old ally, she asked them to give her a tour of the grounds. they complied like zombies. none of them could string words together to create one coherent sentence so they just nodded, smiled and tried their best not to fall to the floor in a swoon. all thsi happened while i was away on an errand. she left. i returned, and was duly crushed to have missed this once in a lifetime opportunity to hang out with her. and i had always adored her the most.
on the day of the reunion, i had a lot of responsiblities during the cultural program. i was tired, frazzled and totally irritable by the end of it. a raffle draw was scheduled to follow the performances and subarna mustafa was supposed to give away the prizes. but she was not in her seat. horror of horrors. we were mad with worry. i ran out looking for her. our sprawling, envy-of the-city school grounds offered quite a challenge. but eventually, i found her ... walking by herself towards a far corner of the huge field. i ran to her and then froze about a yard away. i realized i didnot know what to say. i was suddenly tongue-tied. somehow i overcame my shyness and called out to her. she turned around and smiled at me: "ki re?" as if she knew me from way back when. i was immediately put at ease by the kindness in her voice and the sad nostalgia in her eyes. i walked up to her. she put her arms around me and said: walk with me. i tried to say that we were needed elsewhere but i could plainly see that this was important to her. so i let her have her moment - with one arm casually, tenderly wrapped around my naive shoulders.
everything worked out on time that day. she was a performer and knew exactly what was required of her. she knew the minute i had appeared behind her like a panting rhino. meanwhile, i was floating around inches above ground for the rest of the evening.
my sister'd been sitting on the grass under the old, famed vns banyan tree (which was not really a banyan tree) with some of her friends and she'd seen it all. later, she said: baba! enjoying some quality alone-time with your hero - i saw you, you know. your prayers were answered, eh? i dont think there is much else you want in life? she was right. at 19, big, self-conscious and totally wrong, this was all i wanted. and i hadn't even asked.