When we met Mr Ashish Sharma at ITA Awards 2014: UPDATED WITH LINK PG1

And somewhere around 9ish with this commotion in my head ... I see the super handsome actor Anil Kapoor walk in... oh god.. there goes the jury award.. so stupid of me to be convinced that Mr. Sharma had a chance against Anil Kapoor, who was also nominated for jury best actor... 

After sometime .. the legendary actor Jitendra walked in and everybody in the gold section, including the event management girls and boys, started following him... Greeting him... walking him up to his seat in the first row...

Suddenly... my head turned towards the entry again.. and I see this black jacketed guy... hopping a few steps towards some guy and hugging him... and a lady in a beautiful white outfit had her back towards us... and I tried to look closer... Adjusting my glasses closer to my eyes .. as I could not believe what I was seeing...

Mr. Sharma had arrived.

It was him.. smiling and hugging that man, ...brown shoes, fitted beige trousers, black jacket, something white beneath the jacket, Rudra's moustache and comparatively long tresses set backwards with a hair band...  

I nudged Crystal that Mr. Sharma was here... and we all saw him walking towards the seats, holding Ms Taide's hand, and the duo sat in the second/third row in the front... soon the cameras panned towards them and they couple was on the huge screens next to each side of the vast stage... we were all very very happy bunnies..

Mr. Sharma and Ms Taide were sitting just a few rows ahead of us and we were quite restless..so close yet to so far...

My mind was working overtime.. I was about to send him a written message that we were his huge fans and would like to take a pic with him after the event is over...

But, at that very moment...the anchors invited some actor called Raqesh and an actress whom I have no clue about to give away the special : Gr8! Performer of the year award..

The duo on the stage opened the envelope and one of them said loudly Ashish Sharma for Rangrasiya.. and we all went numb for a second.. and then screamed our lungs out.. completely ecstatic... cheering and rooting for Mr. Sharma...

The voices that you hear in during his acceptance speech are us four..

Unlike others, Mr. Sharma's acceptance speech was in chaste Hindi.

He first thanked everyone in the audience for making it convenient to attend the function. Then he thanked his parents and then came the infamous line about his wife: biwi ka haath kum laath zyaada hoti hai...Mr. Sharma thanked the writers and lastly Saurabh Tewari, the creator of Rudra Pratap Ranawat..

Yet, something was amiss for me... I really felt it would have been exemplanary if the show organizers would have played Rudra's entry tune when Mr. Sharma marched towards the stage to receive his award...

Back in the Platinum section, it was celebration time.. we had all collectively gone nuts, screaming to the top of our voices and making umpteen heads turn around and stare at us..

There was not much cheering happening you see strangely at this award function and we seemed to be completely out of control..

It was precisely like Rudra wrote to Paro on June 21^st episode : Ab kisi ke bas ka nahin mein.. bas bilkul waise hi.. hum bhi kisi ke bas ke nahin the..

By the way this was the third award for Rangrasiya. The only other show which won three awards at ITA was something called Ek Hasina Thee. Which I understand is on air and going great guns.. the channel promotes it big time...

And our Rangrasiya?: it is off air, the channel stopped promoting it, cut all daily reruns, cancelled episodes and replaced them with some one hour specials of child labour.. yet it wins best lyrics, best music and the best performer of the year award.. some guts eh?

Poetic justice, this?

Mr. Tewari's father should be a happy man.

After a few minutes, we saw Mr. Sharma and Ms Taide get up and walk in separate directions.. Ms Taide went to her right towards the entry and Mr. Sharma went to the further left, his expressions were as if we was searching for someone..

Taking a cue, we too got up to leave but hopeful to meet the couple and coax them into a picture with us on their way out...

However as we walked near the red carpet towards the right side towards the entry .. we realized Ms Taide was nowhere to be seen but on the other side of barrier was Anup, standing with a mike and a camera person...

Anup is the same spectacled guy who used to interview Mr. Sharma during the dance show for colors website...

Some other actors were also present there... the Bientaha couple and the boy from another colors show meri aashiqui... Crystal has tweeted their pictures.

So we were a bit confused as to what to do now? With neither Mr. Sharma nor Ms Taide around... and then I had an idea .. I told the gang that we could request Anup to call Mr. Sharma to this location and then we can click pictures with the man himself after his interview with Anup...

I signaled Anup from behind the barricade that I would like to speak to him and he gestured seeking a minute as he was just about to interview the Beintaha couple...

And to our surprise..huge huge huge surprise... within a few minutes as Anup was just finishing his interview.. we saw Mr. Sharma walking towards Anup with his trophy in hand...

He went straight to Anup and then Anup interviewed him.. his body language was to die for... super confident yet docile.. extremely happy yet had a shaant look...   

As soon as the interview ended, it took less than five seconds from us to seek his attention. Crystal let out a shout of his name and he came towards us. No. Let me more precise. He saw us.. smiled and came towards us on his side of the barricade..

He started with a hello ... Neelum was the first one to introduce herself and shake hands, she asked him if he remembered her and he said yes, then it was Greta who introduced herself as the fan club I think (I can be wrong here), then Crystal who reminded him that they had met earlier during the IF gift segment ahead of his birthday and he nodded... and then it was me.. I told him my name in a meek voice... (Awaaz chali gayee xx) don't even know if he would have understood or even heard... and we shook hands... 

And then without any hesitation or attitude he immediately took Crystal's phone and handed it over to some guy who standing near him.. and happily posed for a picture with us... the same picture which has gone viral on social media: twitter and face book...

But unfortunately Greta was covered by Mr. Sharma himself... and we all looked so dazed... as if we are counting stars.. if you see the picture... I think it is him everywhere.. we are mere props around..

After the picture, he all collectively thanked him and congratulated him for the award to which Mr. Sharma warmly reciprocated with a thank you and blew some kisses towards us...and then the entire world was topsy turvy..

We all left the venue grinning ear to ear and happy with our own selves to the T, albeit with a promise to keep in touch and meet regularly.

But what about me then?

Well.. while we were all officially Dead.. I was liberated as well. Attained nirvana. Attained closure. Closed. 

Truly. Completely. Finally.

Meeting Mr. Sharma for a mere few minutes did what I could not do to myself all these months.

Find peace that is.

If ever he reads this. I would want Mr. Sharma to know that his extraordinary skill does not only touch the souls of the likes of me but his mere presence soothes thousands of troubled souls as well.

It was like being engulfed in a sea of calmness (even though there was nothing like that on the red carpet at that time) and serenity with him beside.

It was like seeing someone whom you admire so closely in flesh and blood and then realizing that he is a human being after all. A regular and normal one. Just like you and me.

Rudra was him but he is not Rudra.  

And it was here that I let go of each and everything that made me so concerned about Rangrasiya.. it is now a good memory and not a sad one..

In the past, I have revealed in few of my posts how Rangrasiya has mimicked Nehal's and my marriage to certain extent and I was always in awe of the similarities it had with the first few years of our married life...and then the show just ended abruptly... it left a very bad memory how much ever I accepted that it was over ... it was still alive in me ... leaving me perturbed quite often...more than once...  

Mr. Sharma: this one's for you:

Thank you for being what you are.

Thank you for making life more worthy of living now on..

Very few humans are as fortunate as yourself who are admired by across all sections of society or young and old...  after all there is no age bar in love!

Thank you.

Lastly, Mr. Sharma: one final sincere request from all us fans here, including the closet ones like me: Will it possible to spare some time from your busy schedule to receive the gifts that were sent to Wass Up TV ahead of your birthday?

A whole lot of us sent the gifts which reached after the IF segment was shot with you before your actual birthday. And again, that includes yours truly who gathered guts to send a parcel.. with assorted gifts which mean the world to me... and sadly it is still sitting waiting in DLH Park waiting to be delivered to you...

All the best and Thank you!

Hiral 

PS: I remembered TEAM RANGRASIYA AT IF when we met Mr Sharma and this entire post is dedicated to all of you.. my lovely friends in this other virtual world.. 🤗

ENDS