Dreams Do Come True!

19^th November 2015, Gurgaon, India!

It was a usual day...I was lost in my entrance exam preparations…Bored to hell… Taking a break from my books, as always, I logged in to twitter only to find out a news that turned my usual day into an unusual one ….and Magic happened…. “Madhuri Dixit will be in Delhi Tomorrow for the Women In the World Summit” it read. WHATTTTTT??!!!!! Madhuri Dixit will be in the same city as me tomorrow!!! Is it true?? Does that mean I can meet her? Is my dream finally going to come true? But how?

To confirm the news first, I quickly did a google search and found it to be true. My heart started thumping faster. I ran to my sister, who was sitting in the other room and told her, “Didi, MD kal dilli aa rahi hai. Mujhe milna hai usko yaar.” (Di, MD is coming to Delhi tomorrow, I want to meet her.”) She just laughed it off saying haan kyun nahi! Ja mill le…tere liye hi aa rahi hai.. (Yeah why not, go meet her, she’s coming for you only).

Having missed out on meeting her at three occasions before because I couldn’t arrange for the tickets in the short stipulated time…Now that she was going to be in the same city, I didn’t want to miss this chance. But how does one meet her? How do I proceed? Whom should I contact? Her team? Will they listen to me? Can a meeting with Madhuri be arranged? Bammm!!! I don’t know.

The first person with whom I shared this on the social media was my Diary Co-admin, Avinash. Main reason being that I knew he too lives in Delhi. So maybe even he will be equally excited to hear the news. I dropped him a message on Diary saying “MD will be in Delhi tomorrow. Is there any way to meet her?” ….He replied, “Ask Nitesh, maybe he can contact the team”… Yes Nitesh!!!! How can I forget him. He’s a pro at this. The most experienced person in this entire fandom. (Experience of arranging meetings with MD, because he’s met her the maximum number of times). He could surely help me out here. And then I thought of another good friend from the fandom, Bhagyashree. 

I dropped them individual messages saying that “MD is coming to Delhi tomorrow and I’m in Delhi. I want to meet her. What should I do?” Both told me to contact her team. Tweet them, mail them, send them a message on Facebook. Whichever way I could think of. And I did. I did everything. I tried to contact them on every platform. Literally feeling like a desperate fan dying to meet her idol. But does it end here? NO! Nothing can happen until they reply. Yes, the big question, “Will her team reply to my messages?” After a long wait, I got a reply from her team which read, “Sorry, no fan meet possible this time, Ma’am has a tight schedule”. That’s it. This sentence broke me. Literally. I was in tears….It’s all over. She’ll come tomorrow…attend the summit. And then go back to Mumbai. I can perhaps never meet her. It’s a dream that will always remain unfulfilled. Is it? Or NO? Somewhere, my heart didn’t believe it too soon. With a little hope still left in my heart I waited for tomorrow. 

Early morning 20^th November 2015, the day when Madhuri Dixit was supposed to be landing in Delhi. After the reply from her team last night, I forwarded the message to Nitesh, and he told me to call her team and directly go there at the venue without a second thought!! WHATT!!! These were two herculin tasks. Can I directly call her team? Won’t that be like stalking her? Is that punishable? And how can I land up at the venue and say I want to meet Madhuri. Who will allow me that way? All these thoughts kept floating in my mind. Nitesh was adamant on this and kept persuading me. Go! That’s how fan meets happen. Most of the time it’s never planned. If you’re there, They can’t stop you. Go there if you can. I somehow thought it will annoy her team if I landed there directly and moreover I didn’t know about her schedule. So, when do I go there? And till what time will I stay there. Will I be allowed? Will my family allow me to be there for the entire day without knowing if I’ll even get a chance to meet her? “No!” was the only answer that came to my mind. 

But I didn’t want to give up either. So, I resorted to the other idea instead and called them up. 

Yes! I dialled the number. 

Somebody pinch me now. 

Is it actually happening? I am calling her team? Dialling someone’s number who’s perhaps the right hand of Madhuri Dixit. What the hell am I doing??!!  What if she doesn’t answer? What if she says no. But What if she says YES? Will that mean I will meet Madhuri? OMG!! 

Thousands of thoughts kept gushing through my mind in those few seconds. And suddenly I heard...” The number you’re trying to call is currently switched off, Please try after sometime.” And the same message repeated in Marathi. Oh God! Why is the phone switched off now? Will it be switched off for the whole day? Do they not take calls when she’s travelling? Heart beating faster and faster I didn’t know what to do now. 

Suddenly I got a notification on my phone. Madhuri Dixit tweeted. I quickly opened the tweet, she had posted a picture of her in the car & it read, “In Delhi for the Women In The World” …. So, the queen is finally here.  YESS! And that explained why the phone was switched off. They were perhaps in the plane when I called.  Heart beat and Blood Pressure rising to an all-time high. I started shivering from head to toe.  Now that the spark had already been ignited, I wanted to re-dial the number. Without a second thought, I called her manager again. And this time to my surprise, it started ringing. And she even answered my call. I explained her everything as quickly as I could and asked if a fan meet was possible. And she replied, “will let you know if anything is possible”. I didn’t want to annoy her further so said, "Thank You" & kept the phone down. 

Now, another volley of question splashed through my mind. How will she let me know? Will she call me, text me, mail me? How?? 

I wanted to message her again. At first I thought it might irritate her since I just spoke to her. But then I even realised that half the day was already over so when will I know if the meet is happening or not? She might go back and I’ll never know about it. Meanwhile I even came to know that her session was supposed to happen at 4 o’clock. So, there was no question of meeting her before that. It could only happen after that, if at all. But I can’t wait till 4 for her team to tell me that the meet is at 5. I can’t reach Taj Man Singh Hotel, the venue, in that short time.  

Somehow the idea of going to the hotel without the meet fixed didn’t please me. So, I waited..waited..and waited for her manager’s reply. After a long wait I sent her a reminder text saying that if anything is possible please let me know. I again tweeted and mailed her on every email id of her team that I had. Did everything I could. Even had some friends asking her on twitter to arrange for the meet. And when nothing worked, I realised how big a star she was and how small a person I was. I realised how difficult it was to set up a meet with Madhuri. And this just made me eager to meet her even more.  

Her session ended. She had some interviews lined up. I was catching all this action live on twitter. It was almost 6 or 7 in the evening. I didn’t get any reply from her team. I now thought that she must be already ready to catch her flight back to Mumbai. I was disappointed but was at least satisfied that I tried my best to arrange for the meet. Maybe it wasn’t my time yet. Yeah, when it has to happen, it will happen. 

Everything was back to normal. A couple of hours later in the night that day, MD tweeted to Filmfare Editor, Jitesh Pillai, congratulating him for the success of Marathi Filmfare Awards and saying that she wished she was in Mumbai for the awards. WHATTTTT??!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Does that mean she’s not in Mumbai yet? Where is she??? Is Madhuri Still in DELHI????????!!!!!!!!!!! Heart started thumping faster n faster again. Hoping that she must be online, I quickly replied on her tweet saying that I want to meet her. And minutes later at around 11pm, I got an SMS on my phone. Can you come to Taj Man Singh Hotel Tomorrow at 10am?  I couldn’t believe what my eyes just read. My happiness knew no bounds.😊 I quickly replied YESSSS!!! She answered,” okay then, see you.” 😊😊😊  I Screamed yayyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Told my family that I’m meeting MD tomorrow. 😊 I shared the good news with Nitesh…Just to take tips on how to behave sane when you’re in front of MD… 😊😋😎  He asked me if I had called up other fans from Delhi as well. It was midnight so I couldn’t call anyone that late. Nitesh then informed Avinash and there we were… Madhuri’s Tweet Diary was all ready to meet The Madhuri Dixit-Nene. It was finally happening. 😊 Finally, one big thing was about to get ticked off from my Bucket List… 

To add to the excitement, I realised, how am I going to take her autograph? I had nothing here. Everything was at my home in Jammu. I had kept a card specially to take her autograph on it but that was all lying back home in Jammu. I didn’t even have a good notepad here to take her autograph. Wow finally meeting Madhuri but will come back without taking her autograph. Hmmmmm.. It does not sound good. Then I thought of the white dwm t-shirt that I had just purchased. I thought, I’ll get her autoghraph on that. But it already had her signature. I can’t ask her to sign it again. Her autograph must  be special & it should be on something that is even more special. 😊 This reminded me of the video of the phone call she made to me, 2 years back, to congratulate me for winning the Jhalak Dikhla Jaa- Dance With Madhuri contest. 😊 I had kept a screenshot from the video in my phone. Yes, I’ll take her autograph on this picture. I decided. But that required taking a print out of the picture first, which couldn’t happen until morning. Knowing that we had to leave early, before 9am, getting a print out even before that was difficult. The shops here mostly open by 10. Let’s see what happens tomorrow. "Que sera sera!!" is what I told to myself. If not an autograph, at least I’ll try to take a good picture to make up for it. With thousands of thoughts, anxiety, happiness, excitement…. I slept. 😊

21^st November 2015, I woke up early… Got ready. Was all set to live my dream. The moment I’ve been waiting for all through my life… It was all about a few hours now. We left the house at about 8:45am. I needed a print out. Tried my luck and hurriedly rushed to the nearest market only to find the Photostat shop open. Like they say, “when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”… Yes, it was that moment for me. I quickly handed the shopkeeper my pen drive, he took the print out… I gave him the money and we rushed from there as fast as we could. 

Meanwhile I got a text from another MD fan from Delhi, Lakshay, saying that he’s already reached the hotel. Till today, I don’t know who informed Lakshay about the meet though..but I was happy to read his message.. It made me even more excited. Then Avinash called saying he’s reached as well. Which meant I was the only one not there on time 😋  I almost thought I will not make it by 10. 😋 But luckily, I reached well on time.. sharp at 10 am. 😋

The excitement was sky high. I met Avinash and Lakshay for the first time. They told me, they saw her team there. MD’s luggage was being taken. We were standing in the lobby of the hotel. I informed her team about our arrival and her manager was surprised to see three fans instead of just one (me). LOL.. Anyway, we were asked to wait. 😎 ab aur wait nahi ho raha tha.. 😋 and Few minutes later we were called to her room. Oh God!!! Somebody pinch me!! WOW!!! 

Three of us were equally excited and happy. Avinash was the only one who had met MD before. So he kept saying she looks like this… like that.. very different from what we see on screen.. 

Soon we reached the room. We were first made to sit in another room. Then few minutes later, her manager took us to Madhuri’s room. The moment I waited for my entire life was right there in front of me. I was finally going to meet my star… Madhuri Dixit.. I wanted to scream on top of my voice and make everyone know that I am about to meet Madhuri.. holding my excitement, I entered the room.. I saw her.. is it her? No it isn’t? YES IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She’s MADHURIIIIIIIII …… Oh My God!! were the first words I said. "Ma’am you’re so prettyyyyyyyyy!!!!!" She hugged me.. she said. "I’m sorry, I have bad cold..I don't want you to get that"... awwww… I wanted to freeze that moment.💖 For once, I wanted the clock to stop.😊

Then Avinash n Lakshay came in. Avinash complimented her saying she was looking Ultra beautiful. Believe me… She was.. She was looking like a doll..😊 we talked…and chatted like we’ve been friends for years.. 😊 I told her how happy I was to finally meet her after having missed out on three chances of meeting her before. Even after winning multiple contests on DWM. She said she knows…and she remembered that she talked to me on phone ..😊 which star remembers that much about their fans? Only Madhuri does. And thus, she’s the most special amongst them all. 

Lakshay then read out a poem he had written for her during Aaja Nachle time..she was running out of time and had a flight to catch, but she patiently heard that. We clicked pictures.. requested her for selfies.. and she happily agreed…😊 I took her autograph on the print out. 

The most surprising thing was, she knew my name ...😊 She didn’t ask before signing and she’s the first person who spelled my name correctly without asking me the spellings. 😊 That’s My Madhuri... She just knows everything. 😊 Then we clicked some more pictures, talked some more and requested her to do more films. 😊 “I will .. of course I will..” she said.. 😊 ….and like all good things come to an end, it was time for us to leave (though we didn’t want to..but we had to) 😊

 I lived the best moment of my life.Yes! She’s so full of love, that every fan must, at least once, try to meet her. It’s a feeling worth experiencing. 😊 trust me, the best in the world. 😊Until we meet again… 💖 cheers! 

Thank you Madhuri, thank you Team M, Didi, Jeeju, Nitesh, Bhagyashree.. for making this happen for me 😊..  I owe this to you guys. 😊

Thank You! 😊