Meeting Gul Panag. More than a star and a Twitter sensation, a wonderful human being.
Okay so I usually have a lot of reasons to tell people when they ask why I stopped blogging giving Twitter the favoured position when it came to self-expression. One of the consistent answers has been how I get to talk to a Bollywood person like Gul Panag on this medium. But I don’t think I had myself completely understood the real deal that I so effortlessly went on talking about until I met the woman today. So what you read after this is an honest fan’s description of his larger than life experience and I will make no attempts to hide or rephrase any of it.
So first things first. Gul Panag is beautiful. Yes she has those cutest dimples and the fairest skin and the gorgeous smile and the lovely voice and a better than average height and the good sense to know what to wear and in what shade what matching etc. An extremely graceful form overall. You know how the world seems to stop when you see a woman you had some time or the other only dreamt of knowing or talking to? So it did for me for a split second. I had convinced myself that yeah no big deal ..we’ve been tweeting to each other for a while and I will be cool. But there’s always that moment when you say to yourself ‘Oh My God ..this is it ..for real I mean ..Wow’. So she walked in from the hotel lobby to the coffee shop where we (add my flatmate Nithin K D) were waiting. That’s when my feet must have frozen for a while. And only for a while I am glad. She does not carry that air of celebdom around her. Not one bit. At least I saw none. You find her with her sweetest best with everyone who comes her way. Her vivacious greeting floored me right there right then. One handshake and all the anxiety was taken care of. The warmth and the gentle charm with such simple delivery is all that’s needed to like her at first glimpse.
The kind of people I like the most are the ones who can be natural without really crusading for it. Gul Panag is one standard prototype here. The moment she opens her mouth to speak you know she knows what she is talking about. Okay so my routine view of most stars is pretty bleak. She however, says nothing that would make you judge her under that starry umbrella. She will take a regular Kingfisher while I settle for Corona. She will let the server decide what’s a good snack to go with the drinks. Letting everyone be just like she is. Her conversations are not about Bollywood. Not by choice. Because that’s not her true identity. She has a world of experience to share and talk endlessly about. When she talks you just know she has been around and speaks from seeing and receiving. I thought she had a remarkable sense of observation and her opinions were grounded while never losing the amusement factor any minute. Yes she makes you smile. And laugh. Just how many people see the funny side of things as well? Not too many. You and I know. The kind of positivity she exudes is plain infectious. You can sense some disappointment somewhere in the remotest corners of her statements, but you see that she’s moved on. She has that half-evil, half-devil side to her too. And she will assert it in the most confident matter-of-fact ways. We all know she is an achiever. She says she’s been lucky, but how many of us know she’s doing little about the part she’s been lucky with? She goes real deep unlike what I would mostly think of stars. She has her own sets of fears and concerns and things to get done and all that stuff. And you can see that she’s thinking. And she’s managing to keep herself sane all along. That makes her one of us. The aam junta, the mango people.
It is very true that I am inspired by meeting the woman herself today and getting to know her a little better a little closer. And I’m not easily inspired, perhaps because mostly I’m not looking for it. Some 90 minutes spent with her totally made me see her in a new light. And how she despite being where she is still has a normal stream of thought and similar common worries. There is no grey in her life. Or so I thought. She has separated her black from white. Diplomacy is not an option if she already has an opinion. She has chased the things she has wanted most in her life. And she’s got them. And the enabler has not been her Miss India title. It is also the desire to be yourself. She kept using this term a lot for others, but I think she’s the one who’s like really ‘sorted out’. Commands respect and it is ruthless to not give it to her.
I don’t look at her as a star star after the meeting. She shares a lot of traits with a lot of women I have met in life so far. But it is how she keeps these various aspects of her personality entwined together to form this strong thread of character that sets her apart. Yes may be she’s not perfect. But she has covered most levels of it. And the objectivism is apparent. You see it when you see the passion in her eyes and her face when she talks. And you know that the woman has got it. You thought Preity Zinta was perky? Wait till you decide to get yourself clicked with her. So full of life and so full of interesting facts and trivia to share, she takes your own enthusiasm to new levels. Believe you me.
I have taken my liberties to say all this here, because yes honestly I cannot claim to know her so well. But if this is how I feel about it, then I have every right to keep my wisdom of judgement after one meeting for a later reference.
I hope to see more of her. On Twitter if nothing else. And I wish her my best for the future.
I’m generally fascinated about meeting new people and consolidating my observations about the human kind. It’s good I hit upon a hitherto unexplored dimension to my analysis.
Wonderful meeting you Gul. You have a fan. And a friend.
