Date: November 17, 2006 
 

My trip to India was for 2 weeks and since it was a business trip and I have a big family (3 years since I last went to India) it was going to be a busy trip with not much free time. Vani mailed me the fan book to be delivered to Hrithik. On my previous trip I had met Rajesh Roshan and so I told the other Webmasters that I would try to make sure Hrithik got the book and get an autograph or something back. Delivering the book in person was a remote chance. My parent’s home is in Khar about 10 min walk from Rajesh Roshan’s office in Santa Cruz and 20 min drive from Juhu. I arrived in Mumbai on 7th Oct late afternoon. The following days were spent working, shopping, meeting friends/relatives etc. I tried to contact Hrithik using the numbers I had received from different sources but did not have much luck in the beginning so I thought maybe I should try meet him through Rajesh Roshan. I tried more on Oct 11th and got hold of a servant who picked up the phone and asked me to contact the office and gave me the number. I called that number and requested for an appointment with Hrithik. Ther girl who picked up the phone gave me Hrithik’s personal secretary’s number. I called that number and went over with him who I was and why I wanted to meet Hrithik. He told me to drop off the book at their office in Andheri (an hour away) and promised me he would pass it on to Hrithik. My husband dropped of the book with the secretary which was in a envelope along with some pics for autograph. I left a note requesting for atleast a 5 minutes meeting with him. After giving the secretary a couple of days - on Friday the 13th I called him and told him that I wanted to confirm if he had received the book. He mentioned that he had given the book to Hrithik and would get back to me on my cell with Hrithik’s answer. Meanwhile I had to go to Surat in the weekend. On Monday the 16th I called his personal Secretary from the car in the evening on my way home from work . I apologized for bugging him but explained to him that I only had one more day in town and hence was calling him. I was leaving for Rajasthan on Wednesday and then flying back to the US. I actually had only one day left when I could meet him. He told me Hrithik was too busy to have a meeting. I was not surprised given the short notice and the diwali time – so, I told him that in that case can he get autographs on the copies I had left. About 10 min. later I get a call from him again. He then asked me if I had a created a website for Hrithik. I said yes and he asked me if I was from Germany and I told him I was from the States. I asked him if he had taken a look at the book and he said no. He had just given the whole envelope to Hrithik. He told me to email it to him the website name with the names for autograph. I reached home and emailed him a small letter mentioning the website and list of names for the autographs. Now I just had to make arrangements to pick up the autographs. Around 11 p.m I received a phone call from the personal seceretary telling me that I had a meeting with Hrithik at 2:30 the next day and to call him back at 11 in the morning for meeting location and directions. I was shocked to say the least. It was a 2 min. conversation. No idea on what was the agenda or even the amount of time. I was grateful that I would be able to meet him to tell him about the site and just surprise that the whole thing was happening. . I did not even have a camera as the one I had brought broke the week before. So I called a local friend and arranged for it to be picked up around 11 in the morning. During the night I had fever and had several meetings the next day. The camera was picked up at around 11:00 but it turned out to be an old clunky non-digital kind. I called the personal seceretary to get directions and after a couple of tries finally connected around 11:30. He gave me directions to Hrithik’s home and told me to contact Hrithik’s driver who would escort me to the home and also give pics for autographs. I asked about the pics that I had left with the book and he said he had no idea where that book was. I asked him if he or Hrithik had seen the website and he said he had not but said if I could bring my laptop (I had mentioned to him before that I could bring it to show the site to him) that would be good. All my meetings got over around 1:00pm and my husband and I left after taking a quick bite to eat. I had no time to pick up the card for Su as the other Webmaster had requested. I finally got the camera and we made it to the house by 2:20. It is a 10 story building and the entrance is blocked by 20 feet high wooden gates and security guards. I call the driver and the security guards walk us to the front porch. We spot a Porsche SUV, Mercedes sedan and Lexus SUV in the parking lot. The driver brings an envelope of pics for autographs. He told us we had to wait for 5 – 10 min as Hrithik was finishing lunch. I mentioned to him that if there was an office than we could wait there and set up my computer. I still had no idea how long I had and did not want to waste any time. He told us to wait downstairs and he went up to check for us. After about 5 -10 min he came down and said we could go up to the 9th floor. We went up to the 9th floor. There was one entrance with Roshan’s as the name plate. Beautiful statue of Ganesh was on the side of the entrance with flowers/diya and some plants. A servant opens the door. He points for us to go up the stairs. I think there were doors to the side but I can’t recall – all that you see is marble stairs going up to the next level. When we reach upstairs there is another servant to meet us. The doors open to a dining room which hosts a large rectangular table that sits 10 people. On the right is the kitchen and on the left is a family room that has huge doors ceiling to floor and 16 feet wide. There is a door next to it. We are led into the sitting room and the servant leaves. The room has a great view of the city, has a flat screen TV on the wall and really nice comfortable grey sofas. I think this was on the TV show once. Obviously it was being used by the family as you see small milk/water stains on the sofa. There is a two/three sitter sofa and two one sitter sofas. I set up the computer on the wooden table. The servant walks in with two glasses of water and this time he closes the large doors. The room is pretty well insulated so no external noise. We now wait. There are pictures of Hrithik and his father (ones we have) in really nice antique frames. On the side table there are a number of frames with family pictures. One of them in the front contains Rakesh with the grandkids – Sunaina’s daughter and Hrehaan. I wanted to go up close to see them but did not want to be intruding on their privacy. The sofas were really comfortable and if I relaxed on them I would have fallen asleep. I was that tired. I told my husband I could not believe we were just sitting in this room on our own. After about 10 min we hear dogs barking and a few minutes later the doors open and Hrithik walks in. We both get up. He apologizes for making us wait and shakes our hand. I thank him for the meeting and introduce my husband. He mentions that he had seen the book and it was just amazing. He had not gone through it all yet but was just grateful for it. He was really down to earth – no airs, soft spoken, thoughtful just like in his earlier interviews. I then ask him if he had seen the website and if I could show it to him. He sits down next to me and I start giving him some info on the website. By the way – I had a cell phone that I could use as a modem to get on the internet. I did not have a local copy of the website. It is a 115K connection. He mentions that he had looked for websites on him a couple of years back and seen our website then but had not seen it recently. He also said there was another website but could not remember the name – I mention Hrithik-Angels and he said that was it. He asked me how he could help and take it to the next level. I was not really sure how to answer that since he had not even seen what it had. I bring up the web site and mention how often it is updated even in the two years that he was out of the limelight. I mention the huge family that we are with so many of us being professionals in all parts of the world. He is just amazed at all that. He was interested in the articles posted and dates. I showed him the family page and a filmo page. I also mentioned the mediazone section and on another window I brought up the multimedia section. I told him the site had pics, videos, interviews - everything about him. My husband joked with him that the site had more stuff than even he knew about himself. He said he would look at the site on a faster connection and then we could discuss next steps. While I was showing him the site I explained to him the reason I ran the site and what a great role model he was. I also told him I really enjoyed his interviews specially his sincerity. My husband added the humbleness. I told him to not change. He was almost blushing and thanked us and said he would remember that. We mentioned that my daughter would have really loved to meet him and we regretted she was not with us. He said next time. My husband mentioned the previous meetings with him and he vaguely remembered them – he said he remembers meeting my daughter as soon as he got of the elevator and about Su mentioning that. I mentioned my daughter was the one who introduced me to the yahoo group and was the reason I created the site. He did not know about the newface group. I explained to him what that was. I mentioned to him the fact that Indiafm/ Rediff etc…monitor our site and pick up bits and pieces written by our members. Then I asked him to sign three autographs for the Webmasters and my daughter– he took his time writing them as he was thinking about what to write. I had a long list of names but did not want to abuse the first meeting. My main aim was that I did not come out as a pushy fan and that he was comfortable enough to start conversations in the future. I explained what the Hrithikrules team did. I asked for one for the Hrithik rules fans and he hesitated and said he preferred to think about it and would write a longer note and email it to me. I gave him my business card and also mentioned that he could find the contact info in the book. He then joked back that he would definitely visit the site to find out what he was doing and to let him know anything we needed from him. I asked for a picture and said he was not sure about his clothes but agreed regardless. I did not notice the scratches on his arms since I was sitting next to him but my husband did. He was bruised all over on his arms… He then apologized that he had to leave and mentioned that he had fallen off a horse that morning. He confirmed it was for the AJ training but was not sure on the shooting starting date but just said soon I mentioned to him that the other Webmaster had told me to pick up a card for Su’s b’day but that I had not had time to do it. He said it was ok and that he would let Su know that. He took my business card and confirmed that was the email to contact me. He thanked us once again and left and on the way out he asked his servants to set his lunch for him. We collected our things and walked ourselves out passing two small dogs and a stroller on the side that was not there earlier. In hindsight, the whole meeting seems surreal. It was just so casual – like meeting a business associate. Looking back, it just seems amazing that I could even arrange a meeting with the amount of free time I had in Mumbai. - By Mamta