An Early Morning Surprise

Source: Arunima

You people can very well guess from my name that I'm no Aussie. I'm an Indian who has settled in Australia. And, last year I visited my country for the very forst time for my brother's wedding, and what a visit it was!

It was during the month of September and my trip was from the 7th - 15th. And coincidentally, this sweetheart of mine, Brett Lee (no hard feelings, girls) was touring India to shoot a commercial for Timex - the Brett Lee Timex Collection. Well, then I knew he was at Mumbai shotting the commercial there. But on the 9th of September, my sister told me that Brett was arriving in Dehli, where I was. For a second I was like, "don't joke...how did you know about him and that he'll be coming to Dehli tomorrow? It wasn't on the news or anything."

Then I suddenly remembered that her dada was an employee in Indira Gandhi International Airport (Dehli Airport). In a split second my heart was beating fast and I asked my sister, "do you think we can meet him?" My sister told me that her father was not permitted to tell anyone about Brett's arrival and it has to be kept secret. However, both of us decided to give it one more try. We begged in front of our parents but it was no use. Instead, we were scolded about thinking such things during the marriage. However, we made a wild guess that he must be arriving late at night and not in the day because of the crowds.

So, after much planning my sister and I decided to run away after going to bed early that night (9th September). And we actually did sneak out at 11:30pm all by ourselves praying that we were not caught. I didn't have the slightest idea about how to get to the airport and was scared that we might get lost. However, my sister was obviously familiar with the city so we took a taxi and reached the airport at around 12:30am hence it was already 10th of September.

We waited in front of the airport and the security guards wanted us to go away, however we ignored them and waited. I was really tired with all this excitment but still I stood there for about 2 and 1/2 hours. I was feeling restless and suddenly I felt maybe Brett isn't arriving today at all. Then I would have been be really upset. However, suddenly at around 3am the whole airport seemed to lit up with a lot of noises and all.

My sister and I were like "is he here?" We waited outside and watched and suddenly after ten minutes loads of media people came out of nowhere and finally after another 20 minutes of maddening excitement, I could see a blonde fellow walking up shaking hands. I waited for him to come out and to be frank I felt it took ages but finally he was out of the gate. There were other fans too who must have been in some link with the media or might have guessed just like us and there he gave a short speech. I was feeling sorry for him because he looked tired but kept smiling and he was really lookin cute in this blue t-shirt.

Finally after the tiny seminar, fans jumped on him for his autograph and pics and after a lot of trouble I at last had my chance. I said or rather shouted (because it was really noisy) "Wow..I'm so glad I'm meeting you....can I have your autograph?" He replied "yup". But alas, I didn't get a pen or a slambook so I was like "Oh I don't have a pen." I felt so stupid, idiotic and helpless when I was telling that to my hero. And guess what? He was so sweet he said "I have one, don't worry." And then he sort of caught hold of my shoulder and asked my name. I spelled it for him and he wrote on my t-shirt "To Arunima, Best wishes, Brett Lee". Then he said "there you go!" I replied "Yeah, thanks a ton Brett Lee."

Then I was finally pushed away by my sister and other fans and media fellows but it was great. I was so happy I just couldn't believe my luck. I'll remember 10th September 2003 forever.

Sometimes I wonder I have been living in Canberra all these years but never had a bit of luck to even have a proper look at him (apart from seeing him play in a stadium), but now suddenly I visited India and got to meet him!!! That was something really awesome & unBLEEvable...

The next best part was that when I came back from India to Canberra, it was really cool to see my friends shocking faces when they heard the story. And as for my parents they just couldn't some to terms that I really did run away to meet him and actually got his autograph!!!!!

This story is used with permission from Arunima. Please do not take anything here without the prior consent of the webmistress.