I was working out at the gym and my bro was waiting for me to finish when my cell phone rang. We are not allowed cell phone inside the gym so it was with my brother. He called me and said there is a call for you from some Sanjena - I took the call. She was my classmate and was asking me out for a movie I really had wanted to see, but could not get the tickets. She said she had two extra tickets, so I told her to ask my best schoolfriend Jayati as she also wanted to see the movie.
We went for 'MAIN HOON NA' the movie the next day at Inox, the city's latest multiplex and everyone's hot favourite. Well during the interval me and Jayati came out to get the popcorn, I was buying the popcorn from refuel cafe and there was this huge poster of Bing and both me and Jayati(both great Bing fans) were talking about how great he was and how good looking too. At that moment neither of us could think that we were destined to meet Brett that very day. We did not even dream that we will be able to meet him,and that too so unexpectedly.
Well, after the movie all four of us were deciding what to do, I and Jayati wanted to hang around forum (the mall on top of which inox is situated) and Sanjena and Shivani wanted to head home, so we decided on heading home and we took the way out through shopper's stop.
We had just entered shopper's stop and had just walked a few steps, when all of a sudden I saw him coming out of nowhere along with a friend and some cameramen behind him, but no crowd was gathering around him as no-one recognized him instantly. Everyone must have thought he was just some other foreigner as he did not come with much security, he had come to forum hiphopping in a shorts and t-shirt (while actually he had come to Calcutta for promoting Timex which I came to know later).
I was the only one in the entire shopping mall to recognize him the instant I saw saw him and was obviously shocked from head to toe as I did not expect him to come to my city all of a sudden and the same day I was thinking about him (well at that time I did not know about the his actual reason ). I started shaking Jayati, and I started saying "dekho,dekho(look,look)" and Jayati was like "kya(what)". Then I said "Brett Lee, stupid girl" and she was like "kahan?(where)" as she was looking in the opposite direction.
Then I had to grab her shoulder and pull her around to make her see. Till then Bing was heading out of shopper's stop and I shouted to my friends "let's follow him, we got to take an autograph". On the way Jayati was saying things like "please pinch me to make sure I am not dreaming" and my other two friends were laughing and I was like "stop talking and concentrate on following him."
We followed him till second floor where Bing went into Benetton. On the way up on the escalator I was digging through my purse for a piece of paper and found some bill, Sanjena and Jayati also got some pieces of paper and luckily I was the only one to have a pen as my uncle had gifted it to me just the day before.
Bing entered Benetton and was looking through some t-shirts, we were wondering how to approach him, we all asked Jayati to go forward but she was more nervous than us, finally Sanjena decided to go and I also decided to go with her. All this while Bing was inside Benetton and we were right outside it and I was the only one who was standing right on the entrance of Benetton and staring right at him. I also went inside and pretented to look at some clothes for myself while he was looking at some t-shirts in Benetton. By this time many others were staring at this handsome foreigner but from very far, I was the nearest one standing to him.
Then he came out of Benetton and Sanjena and myself approached him. Sanjena said "autograph please" and he said "ya sure" and he made the gesture for a pen and I gave him mine. He couldn't write properly so he said "can i have something hard to write on" and Jayati gave him her wallet to write on. He signed BL and while he was signing mine a group of boys had surrounded him and were asking him for an autograph but he pointed his pen towards us and like a real gentlman said "GIRLS FIRST" though that crowd was practically falling on him. He signed Jayati's autograph after mine and signed one more of the crowd and returned my pen and Jayati's wallet and went of towards watch world.
That pen is my most priced possession since then and im glad my uncle gave it to me when he did and it was in my purse at that golden moment. Later on Jayati told me that he even asked Sanjena her name but we did not hear it because we were just looking at brett lee at the moment and could not hear or think anything,but just keep looking at him while we had the chance. And Jayati was also too numb to speak. I just wished I would have heard and said something and then he would have signed my name and his whole name instead of just BL. But it was all so quick that we did not have much of a chance for anything and I regret to this day that I did not have my camera so that I could have a snap taken with him, and I wish that I could get hold of those snaps the cameramen took of us somehow. And I also wish that I meet Brett again and this time properly like Sarah Genius.
I can never forget the historic Monday 3rd May, 2004 when I met him. After the encounter with him I in actual sense became his fan, and searched for him on the net and came upon this site and when I read about him I became more a fan of his other achievements than just his good looks as I was before. After meeting him I knew he was a true gentleman and he always was a great cricketer and since then I am obsessed with him as you can see in the obsessions I submitted, but I would always love to get to know him personally and be good friends with Bing. Well isn't that what all fans want? But I just want a bit more.
This story is used with permission from Samvidha. Please do not take anything here without the prior consent of the webmistress.