Even as an impressionable teen, I never really had crushes on celebrities – because aukat. The reason that I want to meet famous (or infamous) people is not that I am star struck and want to have some of the stardust of their glamorous lives rub off on me. Mostly I want to meet them because I’m sure they have interesting experiences to share – also because I think they would really enjoy meeting me (in my head I am exceedingly interesting). Off the top of my head, I would like to meet:
Yes, it’s a cliché and every Indian in the world wants to meet him because he is one of the most beloved Indians, definitely the most famous cricketer. He is also the winner of the highest civilian award, rich as Croesus, breaker and creator of a zillion records! I just want to know - What’s that like? Just…. What?
She won 22 Grand Slams was world no 1 and one of the most versatile tennis players ever. We never hear about her now! I want to ask her what’s life like now?
This is one of the funniest guys on TV, he is also one of the best and most incisive political commentators in the world. An evening spent in John Oliver's company – hilarious and educative!
I think he is a so-so actor (please don’t kill me). When I want to describe his looks, the term ‘smoker's face’ springs to mind. In short I am not a fan. But I know plenty who are devotees! In my view Shah Rukh Khan is a far, far smarter person and way more interesting in real than reel life. I wonder if he knows? I’d like to ask him, at any rate.
She is one of the most outspoken actors from Bollywood. She wears her feminism and her politics on her sleeve. She did – horror of horrors – a masturbation scene in a film. She is also one of the most trolled people on Twitter. She is also a fauji brat, I believe. I’d like to meet Swara Bhaskar and shake her hand, and ask her how do you take it day after day after day, woman?
She is one of the funniest women in India. She speaks about the unmentionables – bras and (horrors) periods and sanitary napkins. I would like to have a drink with her and have her be the redoubtable Mrs Lutchuke for me and then fall out of my chair laughing.
I cannot imagine life without Windows. He is one of the richest and probably one of the smartest guys on earth. But for some reason I feel that he is a very boring person. I want to be convinced otherwise.
I just want to say thanks – for the Beatles, for Penny Lanes, Hey Jude, Let it Be, No More Lonely Nights, Hope of Deliverance, My Valentine (this when he was 70!) --- the list is too long.
This is the guy because of whom I started listening to Tamil music – without understanding a word. I want to meet him for the same reason as Paul McCartney – to say thank you for the music.
They are not famous per se, but they represent most of what is wrong with the world today: prejudice, astonishing ignorance, rank racism, a false sense of grievance and victimhood, suspicion and hate for the ‘other’. I don’t flatter myself that I can change any minds – but maybe meeting such people can offer some insight and help me understand a bit more about illiberal, conservative ideology? Giving a hearing even to the most illiberal of voices --- isn’t that what true liberalism is all about?
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