I was looking at the crowd at Town Hall Ernakulam where celebrities came to have a final look at their beloved friend, Acclaimed Actor, Screenwriter, Director, Producer Shri Sreenivasan. Vineeth Sreenivasan, Dhyan Sreenivasan sat holding their mother.. it was a very difficult hour for every one …. A very dear man taken away so soon..

The quintessential common man of Malayalam Film Industry, who broke the template of a hero for Malyalees… he shined bright with his diverse roles and aced in various fields and laughed out loud at all times.

I have had the good fortune to have spent nearly six hours (uninterrupted) with this fine person, and I remember about it as if it happened yesterday.
It was a train journey, me and husband, with our two children, boarded the train from Tripunithura, to return home( in Bhilai, Chattisgarh). The year must be 1999-2000, and we were in the second AC coach, most seats were vacant that morning.
We had just settled down in our seats, and next station came.. Ernakulam, it must be 10 am, and I saw two three guys walking by to the adjacent berths, two of them in stiff white cotton malayali mund and shirt, and another one in usual pant shirt, and I suddenly realized, that was actor Sreenivasan!!!
Once the train started moving, I told my husband, I am going to meet him… I gathered courage and walked to the next set of berths. By then the other two stiff mund people had left and actor Sreenivasan was by himself, I don’t remember what I spoke to him.. 😀 must be that I am so glad to meet him etc. and I came back… otherwise no one in that coach disturbed him.
I remember the next few hours went by casually, we came to know our celebrity neighbor here is travelling to Erode, which would be another 5 hours !!

Somehow it happened that Shri Sreenivasan found out about this five-six hour journey only after he got on the train… and he was totally taken by surprise. He was not mentally ready for this long travel .. he had assumed it would be an hour or two. Actually Shri Sreenivasan was invited by Erode Malyali association for a function and 25 years back he didnt think twice about travelling by train 🙂

It so happened, in no time we were talking as usual co-passengers would .. to our utmost bewildered self this was our wildest dream coming true. Who gets to sit by a celebrity and talk for hours? 😀

Yes Shri Sreenivasan became one among us.. I must have been floating in that train compartment… saying look who is our friend! He told us about his son Vineeth whom he had uprooted from Kerala school to Chennai school as he felt the boy will not get to complete his education in peace – in Kerala with the celebrity father. Vineeth had started getting singing assignments and as a Dad he wanted his son to study well. He told us usually people would meet him and expect him to crack jokes .. he said I write comedy scenes for films that does not mean I have jokes in stock. My husband remembers he was working with Mamooty on some film, that he had worked on Sunday, so he managed to find this off on Monday and talked about his work in detail.

I was reading a novel by Eric Segal ” Love Story” and told the plot of the novel to him… imagine me telling this to “The Sreenivasan” … I told him he can catch up on his sleep during this train journey – he said his brain is not wired for a sleep now… and poked at his head. I also asked him how he was in such a common man dress – an ordinary pant and simple shirt – nothing to tell he is such an accomplished person, that too from the Film Industry. .. for which he told us how likes being simple.. and I remember looking at him with such admiration, awe and what not.

Today, I asked my daughter if she remembers the day we had travelled with Shri Sreenivasan.. she said Yes! She was possibly nine years old then and my son six. I certainly do not remember what we told him but in my highest expectations, I dreamt, Shri Sreenivasan will find me and my person interesting to add this accidental meeting in a movie 😀 😀

I look back at those hours and feel how fortunate we were to have spent so many hours in the company of a Gem of a man. He was welcomed at Erode station by a group of Malyali association people.

Those days we had no cameras.. so we do not have any pictures but the vivid memory remains etched in our hearts…. after 25 odd years when I hear about his death I feel like I lost a friend.