Not all those who wander are lost

LLA -> BOM

The full moon’s reflection is dancing in the sea thousands of metres below us, playing hide-and-seek… revealing itself only in sparkling glimpses between scattered islands as we move swiftly across the sky, wings spread widely. Beautiful cities between sleep and awake, resting in a blur of light and darkness… trains silently wriggling across the land as if they were glow worms… A quick stop and change of flights in Istanbul… and on the other side of midnight Mumbai is waiting for us, with arms wide open. (3 dec)

The young Indian woman next to me on the flight from Istanbul to India fell asleep leaning against my shoulder even before boarding was completed. Half an hour later I’m watching Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, and she has woken up after what seems to have been a very refreshing nap. She points to the in-flight entertainment monitor in front of me, gently tapping the image of Suri (Shahrukh Khan) helpfully informing me that ‘This man is a big superstar in India’. I can’t help smiling widely, thinking to myself ‘Bless! How innocent…’ ;) And then I tell her that yes, I know very well who he is and that I absolutely love Indian cinema. She casually says that she’s part of a film team, that they are returning from Turkey where they’ve been shooting at several different locations for a feature film… So, it turns out that she’s Abha, an assistant director working with Mayur Puri since a few years back. The film is, as of now, going by the name Oh Tell Me Khuda, starring Esha Deol, Chandan Roy Sanyal (Michail in Kaminey) and Rishi Kapoor among others, produced by Hema Malini. I have to admit I wasn’t familiar with Mayur Puri’s name before, but I sure have noticed his work. Some of it is fantastic, actually. Another project they’ve been working on recently are the dialogues for Prince: It’s Showtime (see, there’s the Vivek connection again!!) Abha introduced me to Mayur, and I can’t remember when I last saw someone as surprised at he was when Abha told him that I was into Hindi cinema and even knew a lot of his stuff :) Esha was on the plane too, I passed her in the arrivals hall but I didn’t stop to talk to her. Anyway, we had some really great filmi conversations for the whole duration of the flight so it really was the best possible start for my trip. Brilliant travel company, great energy, a lot of fun and very very inspiring :)