1: 00 AM Poona Jn. in 70’s. I got down from the train as it entered the platform as I wasn’t sleepy, while my brother and parents were fast alseep travelling from Bombay to Bangalore during our summer vacations.
I saw a familiar face come towards our coach looking for an empty berth, it was my cousin Shankar Nag (Nagarkatti) and another short, dark, pockmarked person chugging along with him whom Shankar introduced me as his friend “ OM”. A few years later, I realised it was “ OM PURI” that I had met at Pune railway station. They were shooting for Sai Paranjpye’s film ( or was it a serial) in Pune.
Fortunaltely for Shankar, there was a booked but an un occupied berth next to us and he convinced the TC to allot it to him. After a couple of hours of chatting, he went to the top berth and under the dim, dark purple light, he started reading his script for “ Ondanondu Kaladalli “ directed by Girish Karnad. I think he had written down the script in English though the delivery was in Kannada. He was about to join the Kannada movie world. He became a heart throb of millions of Kannadigas in no time.
Many years later, Om Puri was live on Rediff Chat and I mentioned about my encounter at Pune station. He said he was close to Shankar in those days and what a gem of a person he was and it was a tragedy that Shankar passed away at such a young age.
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