JJ Nitro

With Shahrukh in the Big Apple

~With Shahrukh in the Big Apple~ As all of you know I could not make it to NYC for SRK's birthday because I was in India for some work commitments as soon as I came back I had a plan to go to NYC. my friend Bunty Walia (gs entertainment) told me whilst I was in Bombay that he has holding a press launch for his new up coming movie EK AJNABI in NYC so I have to be there, I was excited now this way I can give SRK his birthday cards/letters/e-mails/CD, S and of course my own present and attended the press launch party of EK AJANABI. We left early morning of wed 9th Nov from Heathrow airport and arrived at JFK around 11.30am hence giving us a full day in the big apple. Oh I love New York it’s a very young and exciting place. Hotels are awful and very expensive but shopping is great. we arrived in Manhattan at the Radisson Lexington hotel where SRK and crew were staying as soon as we walked in I saw our own koogie standing on the steps of the hotel with many of her friends from south Africa she was looking really nice, it was a nice surprise to see one of our own people as soon as we walked in. Koogie cane forward we exchanged courtesies and koogie told me that she has seen SRK and has taken photo with him (I think) she looked real happy and pleased to see me too I was certainly pleased to see her. We checked into the hotel and as soon as I got into my room me smsd SRK he said he was out of the hotel till later so we shall meet at the EK AJNABI after party it was getting exciting.......................................... The press conference was at 2000 at the very exciting DREAMS hotel of NYC it’s a beautiful hotel and an excellent vane for the press launch. Mr. Walia also chooses the best venues for his events ,he has style ,he has class and you will see in his movie that he has creation ,and excellent taste in music.............................just make sure you watch EK AJNABI as soon as it comes up . We got to DREAMS hotel around 2030 interviews were in full swing MR BHACHAN was the centre of attraction like always and there were a large number of media people there. After the interviews there was an excellent presentation with clips from EK AJANABI. Than the party start to rock around 2300 brilliant music and an even better venue and a lovely crowd. All of a sudden MR BHACHAN arrived at the party followed by Mrs. Bhachan and Mr. Abhishek Bhachan, now the party was really rocking, there was real excitement in the Air stars spoke to everyone in the party there was about 100 people and really cool atmosphere. I met many new and exciting people and made a few good friends too music was loud and the night was still young drinks were flowing and strangers were exchanging smiles it was so very exciting but one thing was missing S-R-K without him it was really not happening. Than all of a sudden the king arrives in his usual style, dressed up coolly and casually in his dark jeans and black t-shirt, the girls just went ballistic on him, they just wanted to kiss his hand, hug him or cuddle him. The real buzz was happening right now. than SRK saw me and gave me a big hug and asked how I was and if I got my birthday present and I said yes I got the box but it was empty he said no it was not empty it was full of our wishes(wot a sweet thing to say) I was still talking him but some young rather sexy looking girl came in the middle so I moved away and bumped into Arjun Rampal and he was so pleased to see me and got me a much needed drink(still water honest) than super model Naomi Campbell arrived and came thru and gave SRK the biggest hug I have ever seen she was real pleased to see him and spoke to him for a while and bollywood star Mathew Bo Derek arrived too and got chatting with SRK and the bhachan in the mean time all the gorgeous girls surrounded our own hunky Arjun and I went over and protested that he cant have attention of all the beautiful girls we have to have some too, everyone burst out laughing and I was assimilated to the same corner as Arjun and chatted there for a while and met some really nice people .than SRK came and sat next to me and we had a quick chat and I asked him couple of things and he suggested that we have our business meeting on Friday at lunch time as he has penciled in an hour for our business meeting. Party was really hot and everyone was real cool. at around 0200 am most people had gone and few people and all the stars we moved into a private room to have more fun, even though Mr. Bhachan the god of bollywood was there but everyone was looking for SRK’s attention he was being pulled from all directions all the people were surrounding him non-stop after a while he sat down in front of me I was talking to Mr. Bhachan and he was telling me that his mother was from Pakistan and how he is very keen to start up a trust fund or an orphanage in his mom’s home town. when SRK heard that he said to Mr. Bhachan yes now you are talking to the right man he will take care of it shahid always delivers and you can really depend on him. I was really humbled by such a great comment by the king himself. someone else came in to the conversation and SRK moved away a little whilst me and the GOD of bollywood continued our discussion and he said how he would love to go to Pakistan and how excited he is at the prospect of meeting people o Pakistan party kept on going but SRK had to leave witch Karan Johar as they had an early start next morning for shooting a long way away from NYC. after SRK left Bachman’s left too and slowly party was drawing on to its last breathes( my phone rang it was koogie I had invited her to the party but she was just coming over I told her it was too late) but we still sat around chatting and having a good leaf until 0430 eventually it was time to say good bye to all these lovely people and make way to the bed (much needed by now without drinking I was wobbly by now) so that was that party was over and we moved on to the hotel and into dreamland .................I was bloody knackered so I did not even dreammmmmmmmmm until about 10am my phone started to ring and I woke up thinking did I have a party in my dream or did I have a dream party.....it was a dream party at dreams hotel with people whom the dreams are made of.......u know what I mean’dont you? Next day arrives and it’s totaly and utterly dedicated to shopping i spent a few thousand dollars but my friend went beserk he spend more than 25,000 usd on shopping in 2/3 hours. once our own shopping finished we started to look for a birthday present for SRK it was not an easy task....................................... what do you give to a man who has everything??????? We chose a mount Blanc fountain pen (classic model) and tell you I AM SO PLEASED THAT WE CHOSE THAT PEN. anyways after shopping finished we joined up with Arjun Rampal and bunty walia near Saks 5th avenue and after a short while we went to have lunch at a rather nice Italian restaurant (Arjun favorite) food was awesome and price was even more awesome but it was worth it we had a long lazy lunch and made our way to Kenneth Cole(soho) SRK'S most favorite shop for further shopping Arjun bought a few things(oh boy he spends a lot of money) than we bid him farewell as we were meeting up with Mr. Anil Kapoor for a coffee and a snack near Bloomingdale in Soho ,meeting up with Anil Kapoor was another exciting addition to a very exciting couple of days , he was really ,humble and a true gentleman we spent couple of hours with him and discussed some serious business issues and had a great time in his wonderful company. after that we came back to the hotel and caught up with Manish malhotra who was working really hard dressing up cast of KANK ,IT WAS SUCH A PLEASURE TO BE WITH HIM he is truly a down to earth,extremly creative and very very friendly guy we had a long coffee with him than we were ready to go off to bed but got a text message from SRK asking me where we were...........i texted him that we were back in the hotel so he said come over if u want to have a coffee ,needless to say we jumped at the chance to get there i quickly went to my room to pick up few birthday presents and cards and things to give it to him. got to his suite quickly and he greeted us with a big smile and asked me with a grin who was i trying to chat up last night and i pleaded pure innocence’s and said no one..........everyone just burst out laughing.......................................... ................................... we sat down and yaseen ordered some coffees and things and i gave me the cards first one in rainbow colored writing by meike and few others than the big birthday international card ,he was so pleased and looked at every name and commented ;wow what a great effort' and he asked me to thank every one for such a nice card and said before you ask me yes will be going to Germany when ever my plans permit and he is very much looking forward to it he asked me to say a special thank you to Hanim for the effort with the international card we had a quick coffee and a chat SRK was looking really chilled out he was lounging in the big sofa and was in a great mood, asked me about my trip to Bombay and bang lore and i told him bang lore was okay but Bombay was awful since you were not there and he laughed and said you should not have gone there instead should have come to nyc we called it a day at that and said goodbyes, it was really nice to see him without any interruptions or pressures no phones was ringing no people were coming in or out of his residence eventually Friday arrived and again someone i shall not mention names woke me up i said to her i am sleeping but she kept on going on and on and would not take no for an answer so i had to get up get bad listen this ranting fan............................................... ................ eventually dragged myself out of my bed and got a texted message from Manish Malhotra to join him down stairs in 10 minutes for breakfast i quickly got ready and got to the cafe and met Abaya from shahrukhkhan.org and asked her to join us for breakfast and it was really nice whilst Abaya asked Manish few questioned i stuffed myself with a lovely omelet and cappacino, Manish told her about the dresses actors are wearing and many other things about the shooting of KANK. after the breakfast Manish had to run to organise few outfits for the evening shoot at a furniture store and he said goodbyes and we came back to the hotel lobby .there were the bhachan and everyone else chatting with each other we joined in as well and i introduced Abisheik,s to Abaya and by mistake i said to Abi oh Abaya is a big fan but no abaya would not accept it she had me corrected there and than and said to Abi no no no i am a big fan of SRK and not yours oh abi was a little embarrassed but i think abaya not only showed her loyalties but also spoke her mind ......................in a way it was refreshing to see someone speak their mind.............................................. .. than Preity Zinta turned up and looked at me and said oh shahid what are you doing here and i said waiting for you to buy me a coffee and everyone laughed but abi said oh i will buy you a coffee and he did how nice of him We stood around chatting in the coffee bar with all the bhachan and Preity her boy friend nessi wadia a very very nice and friendly person. I managed to have a close conversation with Mr. Bhachan and with Mrs. Bhachan it was really nice to see them so casually and they were really very forth coming and conversational I and Mr. Bhachan had a further conversation about trust for his mom in Faisalabad in Pakistan. eventually their transport arrived and they went and just as i was going back to the room Yaseen SRK,S body guard came down stairs and said to come up i quickly rand Abaya to come down to join us in SRK,S suite and present him the birthday wish book they had created in their forum. We all went up to his suite on and he greeted us with a great smile even whilst he was still on the phone. i introduced Abaya but SRK knew her and asked her to come and sit down we all sat down he was on the phone again trying to organise some work for PAHELLI nomination in Hollywood, after few minutes he came off the phone and i said oh you got really nice shoes lucky they don’t fit me he laughed and said yes lucky for me they don’t fit you......................hehehehehheheheh Abaya presented him that beautiful book and he looked through and said a big thank you to her for the work put in in to this presentation. Abaya was supposed to ask him many questions but instead she just sat their few minutes and eventually upon his encouragement she asked him many positive questions and he gave some lovely answers of which she wrote in the forum few days ago. he was wearing a nice par of boots and showed me another one too saying he got them from Kenneth Cole his favorite shop and i should get some too....................and i said if you paying only than..................everyone laughed at this he was wearing a jean which had paint splattered all over it and i said to SRK oh you have been painting again and he laughed really loud and said shahid u will never change. He had a lovely reddish check shirt with Chinese written on it he looked real happy and gave lot of attention to Abaya's presentation. once Abaya finished her questions she said goodbye and left and SRK said what a nice lady, so well mannered and so sophisticated and said laughingly oh shahid totaly the opposite of you how come she is your friend..............and i said we have a common interest and that is you SRK and SRK said since when have you become a fan and we all laughed now it was time for a serious business chat so even i dare not spoil it and take it seriously and we had a 2 hour long meeting and it was serious and purely business only but being with him even for business is a pleasure and a delight .................................................. .eventually we finished our work and SRK got ready to go out and we came down to say bye to all and get packing to get back on the flight at 20.30 it was a quick trip a lot happened in this short trip and a lot was accomplished in a short time but the high light like always was to be with SRK and every moment of it very precious just like the life itself. he is life to so many millions and all adore him and i can see why..................people like him only come once a centaury so i would say to SRK fans to make the most of it................he is simply the best Shahid Malik 16 NOV 2005 Asianoutlook Manage Editor www.asianoutlook.com