Still alive on my list

It’s been over three years since his departure but his number continues to stay in my phone. Farooque Shaikh spoke to me less than a month before he passed away, making me one of the last few journalists he interacted with. Maybe that’s why i couldn’t bring myself to punch the delete button. It’s a pretty common practice in an urban setting to delete contact details of acquaintances — nope, not friends — and then make up excuses when confronted by the deleted person. I vividly remember the conversation we had. He called me from Dubai when i was in the mid-day office back then. Given his filmography, i always saw him as the sort of actor who wouldn’t care much for stardom. He proved me right on several occasions. Once, at a press event, i spotted him stepping out of an auto-rickshaw in his trademark attire. So, during my interview, i asked him how come he’s comfortable being the way he is in an industry which is uptight about appearance. He assured me that traveling in an auto-rickshaw neither makes him big or small per se. It’s simply a medium of convenience. In a similar vein, he clarified that he sticks to his usual white chikan kurta-pyjama (with occasional Nehru jacket) as it saves him the headache of choosing what to wear when. He can don them to everything from a wedding to a funeral! There was simplicity in his nature and it was evident in his philosophy too. On being asked whether the phase when there was a lack of offers bothered him, he said something that remains with me. Apparently, not everybody measures success by the work one does or fails to. There are some souls who live in the present and don’t care whether they leave behind a legacy or not. To them, doing nothing is as important as doing something. They remain dedicated to both the endeavours wholeheartedly. The want for too much can lead to a point where nothing can possibly fulfill you. After his demise, i spoke to some fellow industrywallahs and all had sweet things to say about him. Turns out he wasn’t opposed to change but at the same thing, he didn’t believe that one has to change one’s individuality to fit in. As far as i’m concerned, that is more than enough for me to never delete his number. At least he’s not going to change it.