Pankaj Sir, Hats off to you Dada

This post was long due. Seriously.

Flash back to December 2008. On a tiny corner of the last page of Ahmedabad Times I see an Ad. It begged to stay inconspicuous (that’s the only grudge I have with the Ad). Luck by Chance, my Lady Luck aka my Taani aka my lovely wife Tina (There Is No Alternative….. well that’s a story for some other time) saw it. So did me eventually. I was excited.

Now, this Ad was not like those that had some Friendship Clubs which are out to fleece imbecile guys on testosterone overdose. Hook(er), Line and Single and ultimately Sinker. This was different.

I called up the number they had provided, asked for the details, gave mine in return. The lady voice on the other side promised me to reply on the mail. Pleased with the response, I waited.

Never before I would refresh gmail account so frequently. Don’t know that pissed off Google or what, I got no reply that day. The night was long (duh, it was winter) which did not matter as I slept peacefully.

The next morning, Bhor bhai, Panchi Jaage aur Jaag Utha Insaan. I called the number again just to confirm whether they had got my right email ID or somebody else was benefitting on my behalf.

My doubts were unfounded as the details were right there on top of my mail box. It coincided with my state of my mind. I was on top. Top of the world, you sneaky perverts. Get out. Now came the part which had to come.

Should I take the plunge or should I not? No rose petals to be nipped, no coins to be tossed. It was a simple problem of analyzing the probability using the Gaussian curve and then eliminating the choice which I never wanted to take at first place.

The answer was right there. It’s the question that drives us crazy, my friend Neo would feel. In neo-Bodhi Gaya enlightening moment, I said: Yes, I can.

With the details in my hand, I felt like a man. Baba, with other stuff also I have felt like a man. But this one is for family reading so no Dada Kondke baazi here. I met him and enrolled for the course. The man was portly but had tons of energy. We got talking till the next prospective and petite young thing came by. I took leave and also some Gyaan on that day.

The D-day came. January 20th, 2009. I was waiting for PYT. She never showed up. I felt like I was dumped. I called my wife. She promised to stick around with me still. That was close.

Luckily, that man did show up. That man, He is Mr Pankaj Roy. He was meant to be our course conductor. Yes, Mere dost, I had joined film-making foundation program at St. Xavier’s College in Ahmedabad- courtesy, Institute of Moving Images – the Film School. The course was short-term.

Day 1 was introduction; also it was the day of introspection. Why am I here? I was asked, so were others.

It was not meant to question whether we made a mistake being there or regret shelling out ten grand. It was meant to know what your true calling was. Like my friend Neo said, it’s the question that drives us crazy. I mumbled some words, words that I really felt and meant.

Thoda Pyaar, Thoda Magic

What followed in this journey for the next 11 days (spread across 6 weeks) was nothing short of magical.

Love fostered at home. Magic and learning happened in class rooms. The classes began at 5:30 in the evening and lasted till almost midnight, way beyond their end time of 9 PM.

One madness survived the other. Marriage and Movie making. We talked, discussed, ranted about ideas and concepts and plots and scripts. There was training on know-how about the camera and angles, image size. Hands-on experience with camera. We learnt about scripts, different stages of script writing. About direction and production, about planning and editing.

But I learnt something way beyond that.

I learnt discipline, I discovered myself. We were taught that hamari life mein dukaandaari nahi honi chahiye. You have to have passion in life. Passionate about movies. Passionate about everything you do. You have to give unconditionally to a movie, to life and then let magic take over. Jaadu wahi jo sir chhad kar bole.

Pankaj Sir, hats off to you Dada, you changed so many lives. You took classes for 7 hours continuously without getting tired or showing any signs of exhaustion. He enthralled us, entertained us and yes, we learnt along the way. Learning was never so much fun.