By:Shraddha Jahagirdar-Saxena
To celebrate Children’s Day, Verve invited Hrithik Roshan to spend time with under-privileged girl children, little Nanhi Kalis. The star took time off from his shooting schedule and experienced magical moments with the bubbly girls at a film studio in Mumbai…and they loved every single second of it!
The Nanhi Kalis trooped into Verve’s office at Colaba, excited andeager to set off on their close encounter with the magic man,Hrithik Roshan. Their constant chatter set the tone for the evening….
And, as the bus drove out slowly through the Mumbai traffic, acrossthe winding roads to Film City, Goregaon, where the star hadpromised to meet us, it could only get better. "Didi, kya woh sachmuch ayega?" a little girl asked. On my affirmative reply, theyjumped up and down. When the first note of Hrithik’s Koi…MilGaya blared into the cool confines of the bus, the girls shrieked," Hrithik ka gaana…." And started clapping, dancing and singing toeveryone’s distraction. Drivers of other vehicles turned to see whatall the merriment and masti in a moving bus was about!
The destination could not have been reached a moment sooner.The girls couldn’t have waited even a nano-second longer andtumbled out on the green lawn…stopping agog in front of the huge Hrithik-Verve poster. "Hrithik’s coming soon," we promised them….
And, sure enough, as the kids played games and danced to the Koi…Mil Gaya (what else) songs, Hrithik walked in silently over the grass. It took everyone a split second to realise that the STAR had arrived…and, then, the Nanhi Kalis, (in Hrithik-Verve T shirts, made especially for the occasion) – all between six and nine years of age – took over.
"Yeh naqli hai," one girl said. And, then went up and asked him, "Aap asli Hrithik ho?" "Tum ko kya lagta hai?" the star said, with a smile. And, he knelt down, gently, to talk to them. Their unbounded enthusiasm overwhelmed him – he could not take his eyes off the little kalis.
He patiently answered all their queries. Joining them in the trademark KMG dance, he gave each and every child his individual attention. "If I sign your T-shirts, then what will you give me?" he asked them. And provided them with the answer: "A kiss on my cheek."
A signature, a kiss…and a bag filled with goodies for the girls. The kids and Hrithik loved each and every moment of it. "Hrithik Uncle," the kids pleaded, "We want your number, please." He smiled, scrawled it on a piece of paper and gave it to one of the kids, later signing it again on the huge poster alongside. The girls crowded in, delighted to have their favourite’s mobile number. "Didi," one of them said later, "At home, we don’t have a phone but I will go out and get my chacha to call him." They wanted his number, they wanted him to dance with them, they wanted him to sing for them…and they wanted to take him home.
The fun-filled and friendly atmosphere spilled onto the formalities of the evening, where Hrithik handed over the cheques to ‘Nanhi Kali’, the special project of the K.C. Mahindra Education Trust.
"Aap ko mazaa aaya?" he asked his little admirers. You could have heard their delighted ‘yes’ over a mile away!
And, as the star drove away into the dusk, he said, "It was amazing. They are so cute and small. I loved meeting them. Any time they want to see me again, they are most welcome." Sentiments that go a long way into making Hrithik Roshan, the star and gentleman that he truly is.