Bright, Bubbly amp; Single

After meeting Ash, I decided not to carry pre-conceived notions about a celeb. Ash had always appeared cold and aloof, much too wrapped u...

After meeting Ash, I decided not to carry pre-conceived notions about a celeb. Ash had always appeared cold and aloof, much too wrapped up in herself and her beauty to be human. From what I had read about her, she always seemed to say the right things, behaved the right way, and, horror of horrors, did not have a boyfriend. In an industry where actresses change guys faster than they shed their clothes, this was indeed an anomaly. She somehow didn8217;t seem to fit into the filmi scene, what with her intelligence, inhibitions, reserve and class 8212; all things actresses aren8217;t supposed to have.

And then I met her. Besides her drop-dead good looks, what amazed me was her laugh and school-girl giggle. To believe that Bill Clinton has turned celibate may be a possibility, but to think that Aishwarya Rai is a cute giggle-pot is not! I8217;ve rarely seen anyone giggle so much. She is capable of the colder-than-Siberia look, but she has none of that nose-in-stratosphere attitude I was expecting. So, okay, we may have Femina8217; and Miss India8217; in common, but a person8217;s basic temperament cannot remain hidden for long. And is she intelligent? She can out-talk anyone on almost any subject. This, when the girl is in her early 20s and an actress to boot!

8220;Why are you projected so differently by the Press?8221; I couldn8217;t help asking her. 8220;That8217;s because I have this self-protecting shield around me, like a defence mechanism,8221; she says. 8220;The kind of questions one is asked, the stories that the film glossies conjure up, I8217;d much rather be left out of all that. I don8217;t woo the Press, so they write what they don8217;t see, know what I mean?8221;

8220;You don8217;t look real,8221; I venture forth. She bursts into laughter, claps her hands, and says with great animation: 8220;Do I look real now? You know, I love being human, neither selfish, nor selfless. And why am I not real? Is it because there8217;s no guy on the scene?8221; So I gingerly inquire why there hasn8217;t there been a guy on the scene. It certainly seems an impossibility, especially for an unbelievably beautiful woman like her. Doesn8217;t she believe in love and romance? 8220;I don8217;t miss not being in love at all,8221; answers Ash. 8220;That8217;s because I8217;m in love with the idea of being in love. Love is each one8217;s personal interpretation of an emotion. It has always been and will always be there. Why do I need a man on the scene to feel love?8221;

But Ash goes on. 8220;What8217;s romance? When a guy gives you flowers, the romance is not so much in the man8217;s gesture as in the image your mind associates with the flowers. We8217;ve been fed on these images in films, books and cards, and we want an extension of the same in our relationship. At this point in my life, I8217;d rather concentrate on my career. When I feel the need for romance, I8217;ll simply dream up the visuals in my mind and enjoy them.8221;

Now, isn8217;t that original? But I told you Ash was different. So, what8217;s she doing in films? She still studies architecture, avoided films for the time she was a model, so why did she give in now? 8220;You know, I8217;d experienced so much in that one year as Miss World that I was hooked on to experience. And where can you experience emotion, in all its myriad forms, as in films?8221;

In a red-and-yellow bandhini sari, with her hair loose and very little make-up, Ash doesn8217;t come across as being narcissistic. She doesn8217;t gaze continually into a mirror, though there are many in the room, as I would have expected. Extremely confident, it8217;s as if she doesn8217;t need to look into a mirror for reassurance. Ash knows what she8217;s all about and she doesn8217;t need either you or me or a man for that matter to tell her that.

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What endeared me to Ash even more was the way she related to her fans. She would smile at the person who was taking her autograph. Stars can be extremely callous and I8217;ve seen some of them treating fans with complete disdain. And do beautiful woman ever compliment one another? It8217;s really rare. But Ash does. 8220;You have lovely hair, what do you do?8221; she asked. And when she heard I have a 19-year-old son, she exclaimed: 8220;I don8217;t believe it, you8217;re joking, aren8217;t you?8221; When I wanted to talk about her films, she was more keen to tell me which films, stars and filmmakers have inspired her. Yes, Ash would have loved to belong to the era of Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. So, when I say Ash is one hell of an interesting woman, I mean it. She8217;s not just beautiful; she has a mind that doesn8217;t take well-trodden paths. I just hopes her tryst with films will follow the road less travelled as well. She is too different to be in an industry where everyone else is much the same.