Some days ago I saw a young girl being chaperoned into my café which is both my home and my office

Ali Peter John

MERE KHWAABON KE KAAFILON NE MUJHE KHUD EK GAJAB KA KHWAB BANA DIYA

AUR MERI SARI ZINDAGI MERE KHWABON KO ZINDA RAKHNE MEIN GUZAR GAYI HAI

LEKIN MEINEY YEH TAY KIYA HAI KI JABTAK ZINDA HUN MEREY KHABON KA SAATH MAIN KABHI CHHODUNGAA NAHI, AUR AAJ MAIN EK KALI KA KHWAB DEKHA JISSE POORA KARNEY KA PHIR EK KHWQAB DEKHA HAI

My mother must have seen me as her glorious dream, or why should I have been fascinated by dreams which I see both during night and specially during the day. I can write several books on just the dreams I have seen all my life, but about all those dreams some other time.

And if there is one place about which I have seen the greatest number of dreams by day and by night, it has been this good, bad, sad and sometimes even mad world of films. I sometimes find it extremely difficult to believe all the things that have happened in my life, all the feelings I have felt, all the people I have met, all the accidents I have met with and all the young actors and actresses I have seen when they were nobodies and had the audacity to predict bright futures for them.

I can easily count at least a 100 different girls who I first saw when no one could even have a second look at them, but I saw that something in them that made me take the risk of not only spotting their talent but encouraging them, inspiring them and even helping them to grow into names that would matter in the future.

Just to remember some of those girls, I must remember actresses like Rehana Sultan, who was the first ever actress I had met in person when I was only 17 years old in my house and had seen the sparks in her and had told her father that she would make it big one day and I was thrilled when she had with her very first film Dastak and had won the Swarna Kamal award which was how the national award was called in the sixties and I had the unique priviledge of writing a thank you letter on her behalf to Satyajit Ray who had congratulated her, Smita Patil, Deepti Naval, Padmini Kolhapure, Poonam Dhillon, Bindiya Goswami, Anita Raaj, and Madhuri Dixit who I can without taking any credit for what they have made of themselves, save that somewhere I was the first to hold their hands and lead them on their way.

I had become some kind of a crazy kind of astrologer to whom parent and others came to me to guide their daughters and fortunately for me most of those girls succeeded.

I may have grown old now, but my eyes and mind are still active and sharp (who should I thank for these unique gifts?) and I can still look at a boy or. Girl, talk to them for a few minutes and tell them whether they should follow their dreams or not.

Some days ago I saw a young girl being chaperoned into my café which is both my home and my office. I just had one look at her and I knew she had what it takes but I also knew that she was in the wrong hands. I forgot that meeting, but I remembered that innocent face which had still to weather the storms of life and as it usually happens with me, the girl came into my presence again and this time I knew she was talented and I could do something to make her talent reach out to those who really cared for talent.

I soon came to know that Arti Mishra was doing her course in acting from one of the better known schools called Kishore Namit Acting Academy and besides she was a good dancer in every form of dance and could speak several languages and was a painter and a poetess. She will walk out of her acting school in the next few months and that is when what I have dreamed for her will be put on test, more than her talent.