The good thing about being a journalist is that you get to meet all types of people. This one is about a movie star of the bygone era, who in my opinion played the best role in his own life than on the silver screen. For ease of writing the story, I will call him “Joe” as it would be preposterous to call him by his name and also to protect myself from being hauled up in a court of law.
Joe was a reasonable man with his own sense of proprietary, sensitiveness and astuteness. He met Nyra in College and their love affair was fueled by the adrenalin of youth. So let's begin the tale at the Railway station where Joe is about to take a long train journey in search of an opportunity to achieve his dream.
“Imagine Nyra, one day you sit in a theatre, lights off… and I’ll walk onto the screen, larger than life, people whistling, clapping, shouting out dialogues…”
Nyra smiled, not because it sounded impossible, but she knew it was very much possible.
“And when that happens,” she asked, “will you still remember me? Or will you think of me as that fling you had in college, but not worthy of a life partner?
“Come on Nyra, I’m doing it for you rather than for me, I cannot imagine a life without you,” Joe said.
She shook her head immediately. “No. Don’t do that.”
“Why?”
“Because if you fail, you’ll blame me. And if you succeed, you’ll owe it to me.” She looked straight into his eyes. “Do it for yourself.”
Joe smiled but with a scornful look at her. “I’ll become someone… and then I’ll come back for you. At that time your parents won’t have a reason to say no to our marriage.”
“I don’t need all that. I just want you to succeed and fulfil your dreams” replied Nyra
“I do,” he said softly. “Because I want to deserve you.” Their love lived in small, unremarkable moments.
“Promise me something,” Nyra said one evening “Don’t become someone I don’t recognize.”
Joe laughed. “I’ll still be the same, you idiot.”
“You better be,” she said, but her eyes held on to him, as if she already feared the answer.
At the railway platform, the world felt louder than it should.
“How long?” she asked, holding onto him.
“Two years. Maybe less.”
“And then?”
“I’ll come back and marry you.” She looked at him, as though looking for a faint clue. “Don’t lie to me.”
Joe hesitated, “I won’t come back until I’ve made it.” He said with deep conviction.
Her hand slowly slipped away as she removed the chain from her neck and handed it over to him. Keep this so you will not forget me & if you have to sell it, if need arises, sell it only as a last resort.
He accepted it graciously, his eyes filled with tears. The train chugged away slowly disappearing into the horizon.
The fabled film city gave him everything except what he wanted. Auditions. Rejections. Silence, but their conversations continued.
“I got an audition today!” he would say.
“You always say that,” Nyra laughed.
“And one day I’ll be right.”
“I’m waiting.”
But waiting has a limit. Calls became shorter. Silences longer. Years passed.
“Can you come back?” she finally asked.
“I can’t.”
“Can you try?”
“Not like this.”
“I’m tired, Joe. Waiting for you”
“Just a little more time.”
“You said that three years ago.”
Then she asked him the ultimate question.
“If you never make it, will you still come back?”
Joe said nothing. And in that silence, she found her answer.
She sent him her wedding invitation.
On the day of her wedding, he called.
“I’m… almost there, my first movie is releasing today” he said.
She smiled through tears.
Years later, Joe became a star, not any star - a Super star.
Everything he had dreamed of, everything he wanted for her, but now only a distant dream. Years passed, name, fame and wealth only accumulated, but his heart still pined for her.
One evening, disguised beneath a cap and glasses, Joe walked through a quiet street, his old village, now transformed into a glamorous town, avoiding being recognised. Nothing could have prepared him for how events unfolded. As he glanced at a store window, he saw her.
Nyra stood at the small shop, looking through the glass panel at a beautiful handbag.
She hesitated. Smiled and said to herself “Maybe, next time.”
She moved on…
Joe felt something tighten inside him.
He followed her.
Through narrow lanes.
Through a lesser life than he had ever imagined for her.
She stopped at an old house.
A fading gate on which a crooked board hung with just two words - “TO LET’’.
As Joe stood there, he could hear inside voices.
“Late again?” a man snapped.
“I had work,” Nyra replied softly.
“And what about the money?”
Silence.
Joe stepped back. There was nothing much to see or hear. Life had not been kind to her.
That night, he tossed and turned in his bed. Finally he made a decision, next morning he called up his trusted makeup artist.
“Change my face,” he told him.
“For a role?” the man asked.
“No, for real life,” Joe replied.
His artist was good. He looked at the mirror and saw someone else, a much older man, scraggy face with an ill maintained beard, faded hair. Ordinary, forgettable, a small-time businessman.
He reached her house, the door was opened by a man, quite disheveled, with a large unkempt face, a bit on the chubbier side.
“I saw the ‘To Let’ board, I want to take it” he told Nyra’s husband Kris.
“The room is very basic, I hope you like it, we were intending it for a student” the man said.
The room was very basic, a dull dingy room, with a small window that hardly threw in any light, a single bed with a well used study table and chair. A dust covered fan hung on the ceiling.
“This looks fine to me.” Joe replied
And just like that, Joe came back into her life, albeit a stranger.
At first, he kept his distance from Nyra. But slowly, he began to test the past, carefully, quietly.
One day, while having tea, Nyra said, “You don’t talk much about your past.”
Joe smiled. “There isn’t much to say.”
“No one just appears out of nowhere,” she said.
“Sometimes they do,” he replied. “Especially when they have to be somewhere.”
She frowned slightly. “What does that mean?”
Joe looked at her. “Do you believe people come back?”
She laughed lightly. “This isn’t a movie.”
He held her gaze. “No,” he said softly. “It isn’t.”
Days went by, he basked in the thought of her so close to him yet so far. He enjoyed sitting with them at the dinner table, enjoying each morsel of the modest food that they offered, only because it was from her hands. He noticed how they lived so frugally, he felt the pang to reveal all and lavish them with his wealth, buy them a new house, new car, new clothes, but he knew the folly of doing so.
He then decided, if I can give it to them, I can make them feel they earned it. Now knowing what to do, he set upon making his plans, contacted various people, checked with his bank, asked his lawyers…
One night while having dinner he told them that he had made some money in a deal and he wanted to take them out to have lunch in a fancy restaurant. There was much clamor, the children were thrilled, Nyra, out right rejected the idea, she said she did not have anything to wear to such a big restaurant, Kris was nonchalant as though these things did not matter to him. With a lot of sweet talking Joe managed to take them out. As they approached the restaurant a man came to them saying he had a lottery ticket, but due to some financial constraint he wanted to sell it at half the price. Joe pretended to shoo him away, but when persisted, he pulled out the money and took the ticket from the man. The man gave him a wink as he left.
Joe handed the ticket to Kris saying “ This is for you, hope you win a prize, I have never been lucky, maybe you will be”.
“I don’t believe in luck,” Kris scoffed.
“Then prove it wrong.” Joe retorted.
A few days later he asked Kris about the ticket.
Oh! That one. I have not checked. Let me bring it and come, only to make you happy.
Joe handed him the Newspaper. Kris scoured through the paper looking at the bottom to see if he had won a small prize, at the least and after some time he let out a cry.
“You won?” Joe asked, I told you I am not lucky, but I can bring luck to others.
Nyra and the children came running, Kris was dancing about in the room “We won the Bumper Prize”, repeating again and again.
Kris trembled. “Yes! we have won, now we can have a better life.” He hugged Nyra and the children.
Soon a cheque arrived, a large amount at that. Their lives changed overnight. Every day was a party, buying new clothes, a new car & even a new house. Their circle of friends increased, parties were thrown, and soon they became elite members of the society.
Joe had arranged everything, quietly, carefully.
Kris became louder, more boisterous, different.
Nyra too was taken in by the charm of their new found wealth, she looked much prettier, more confident, no longer with the "all is lost” forlorn look.
Joe vacated the old house and went away saying he had to go to another town on a business matter.
A few months passed by, and one evening, Joe visited them. There were quite a few strangers in the room, whom Joe could not recognise.
“Who is he?” someone asked. Kris waived casually. “Just a tenant from my old place,” he replied.
Joe stood there in silence. He was no longer part of their life.
He walked towards the Kitchen hoping to meet Nyra. Once with her, he spoke to her calmly, he said “ I don’t think I will ever be able to come again”.
Why not? Nyra asked. You are always welcome here.
For some strange reason Nyra opened up to him. “Whenever you were here, I felt a strange peace, as though someone was there, who cared for me, even though you don’t talk much about your past.”
After such a long time, they talked, small talk never the less talk. She felt a strange feeling that she was speaking to someone very close.
“You should come again,” she said with a bit of pleading in her tone.
Joe smiled. “I don’t think so.”
Before leaving, he placed a small box in her hand saying - “Something old, I grabbed many years ago, now it has no meaning for me” he said.
She slipped it into her bag, without opening it. And he left, this time, without looking back.
Days passed, then weeks. One quiet afternoon, Nyra found the box again. She opened it and her world fell apart.
Inside lay a chain… The same one she had given to Joe years ago.
Her breath broke. Tears streamed down her cheek. Everything rushed back. His voice, his eyes, the way he had looked at her.
“He was here…” she whispered. “All this time…” She ran outside, calling out his name… Nothing, just an empty road. She sank to the ground, clutching the chain.
“I didn’t even recognize him…” Tears came without restraint.
The truth stood before her, unforgiving. He had come back, giving up his status, his wealth, his pride …. Only to be with her, pure unrequited love, quiet, patient, unseen. And she had let him go. Again.
She held the jewel box tightly, as if it could undo time.
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