A Different Light

Abhay opened the closed lid of the ceramic container and picked out three cashew & pistachio cookies and placed them on the saucer on which a cup of tea was kept. He closed the lid of the box and placed it back on the shelf, then he carefully picked up the saucer balancing the cup of tea and the cookies and carried them to the study room.



Abhay carefully placed the saucer with the cup of tea and cookies on his computer table over a piece of old newspaper that he had kept beforehand to be used for the purpose. He moved the mouse to awaken the computer screen and then typed in the password to gain access. He opened the minimised web browser. The social media page of a celebrity was open on it. The celebrity had announced that he would make an important announcement for his fans in a live video.



Abhay did not follow any celebrity in particular before. If a show or a movie had a good story or good entertainment factor, then that was all he needed. One day one of his batch mates in college suggested him a television show, this show apparently had a young and talented actor who was in trend everywhere. The show gave Abhay the feeling of first time wanting to follow the work of a celebrity.



“Do we really need to interrupt our gaming session for this?” asked Vikrant picking one of the cookies



“This won’t take much time. Maybe he is going to announce his involvement in a movie. I always knew he would get there someday,” said Abhay



“So, what’s the deal with this guy?” asked Vikrant, not genuinely interested but due the lack of option of doing anything else



Abhay got up and placed his chair facing Vikrant and began speaking-



“Twenty-one years back a young boy entered the city driving his father’s junk buyt functioning scooter and had brought with him a bag of clothes and his grandfather’s old guitar. He wanted to be a part of this enormous and alluring field of entertainment and tried his luck at music.



But he had no talent for professional level music. The talent was only enough to impress a few people on the street where he might have ended up on for living, but one day, the producer of a show, to fill in a suddenly vacant role came across and gave him the role of a musician who had failed to become successful. The boy laughed inside thinking about how he wouldn’t even have to prepare much for the role.



The role gave him a base for others to notice his existence and admire his talents and then he was taken in another show which was discontinued after a season due to poor ratings. But no matter what happened his career kept on rising and the time of OTT platforms brought him under the light he was chasing. So now at 37 he is a talent that all of us fans want to see in a movie.”



Vikrant felt like he had heard similar kinds of stories several times, but he did genuinely make an attempt to stay interested or look like he was.



The live video appeared and so did the face of the celebrity.



Abhay and Vikrant looked at the screen to listen to what he had to say.



“Hello everybody. I hope everyone is fine. I know many of you are excited to listen to what I have to say. But I will apologise beforehand that what I have to say might not be pleasant. I am thankful to all those who have dedicatedly supported me. The thing is that I had set out to become a musician and ended up being an actor, but I feel it is time for me to return to my passion now that I have better resources in my hand. Hence, I am retreating from this field of acting. I hope you all would show a similar kind of support for this decision as well.”



The video ended and there was a silence with both Abhay and Vikrant sitting silently and then Vikrant decided to break the silence and said, “Well you did say he had come to make his mark with that… was it fathers?.. no grandfather’s guitar.”

Written by Anuran Chatterji

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