For the third day in a row, I planned to stalk the W, this time with my BFF and college room-partner, Don. We had to drop by a happy hour by the Embarcadero earlier in the evening, and would later have to venture to the Haight to gorge on deep-dish pizza — but the W could be sandwiched in; indeed, it was quite a priority. Don had her iPhone in tow and dutifully charged up; it would be needed to take photographs, as my camera had been recently tarnished.
We were worried that parking would elide us in any reasonable proximity to the hotel, but alas — the stars aligned, and we found a spot right outside. We sauntered in, hoping as usual to maintain an incognito guise in spite of our melanin. We spotted two young women perched in the lobby, either Desi or Afghan, looking quite primped up and lively. Don and I took a seat next to them and speculated on their relation, if any, to My Name Is Khan; were they other stalkers, or were they possibly part of the crew?
The women, though, were quick to discern our relation, and called us out on being co-stalkers, thereby outing themselves as well. Happy to have allies who could share further juice, we engaged in conversation with them, and learned that they had seen SRK in the hotel lobby a couple days prior, but weren’t allowed by security to take photographs with him.
About ten minutes in, Don had to make a phone call using her iPhone, and I began fiddling with assorted documents in my purse, when I saw the co-stalkers suddenly jolt up and crowd a man in dark goggles and an Armani sweater who had just entered the lobby from the elevator area. One of the co-stalkers threw her camera at me, and I realized while documenting this event that it was Jimmy Shergill!
“Don!” I urged, “Get off the phone! We need it to take a picture!”
Don deliriously hung up on the spot and threw her phone at the co-stalker to take the photograph. We posed on either side of Jimmy, flashed smiles, and merely thanked him at the end, as if he were a character at Disneyland. (He wouldn’t have been able to engage much with us, anyway, as he was immediately swarmed by aunties clad in salwar kameezes.)
Among Don’s delightful quirks is her refusal to wear glasses, or contact lenses, despite a considerable need for vision correction. Hence, after having just posed in such an excited manner, she inquired, “Who was that?” “Jimmy Shergill!” I laughed. “Oh! I love him!” she exclaimed, now excited with cause.
And so went our first successful Bollywood celebrity sighting — certainly not the last.
-LRK
