Stars in my eyes, anxiety in the mind, a lump of nervousness in the throat and fast track heartbeat when my feet touched the ground at London Heathrow airport. Some forty of us making our way out of the airport and the chaos to sort our luggage. Some known and some unknown faces waiting to be introduced. We were gona be each other’s world for the next 50 days. We were looking at each other scrutinizing and judging personalities. It’s like wedding jitters; this anxiety was.
We met again on the day of the shoot. Each face had a distinct emotion strongly reflecting on it. Experience, confidence, over confidence, nerves, relief or simple stress… I could sense every face giving out the exact detail of what the mind was going through. Shot after shot as we finished one scene for the day the expressions changed. It was like a barrage of emotions all around me. Gradually as familiarity grew in, the emotions became personal and they communicated a lot more than just the heartfelt. Some faces grew fonder some distant and some only exist. I was told that you get sick of people after 50 days of seeing each other 24x7. But the welcoming smiles haven’t disappeared even after 30 days of toiling in the weird London weather.
Waking up at 4am and leaving for shoots at 6am has become a part of live, however annoying it is everyday. I hate the alarm every time it goes up to wake me up. I slap to shut it like I will kill it. I hate the warmth of my duvet because it doesn’t let me step out of my bed. I hate the thought of not being able to steal some sleep with a fear of being late and left behind. Yet I love every bit of this madness. I love the idea of waking up everyday to a new day of shoot. I love my work!
Its not the fun of being abroad in a different country, it’s the fun of doing something so creative and fulfilling with the added bonus of working in another country and to be able to experience something so incredible that excites me. I have met new people, made new friends, bitched, gossiped endlessly about anybody random, tried to find some solace in the midst of this madness in vain and learnt something new everyday. Life cannot be better!
Every time we got some time to ourselves we would run at the first opportunity to shop or roam around. We lived on Oxford street for 2 months and began referring to our hotel room as ‘home’. Nothing more disastrous than that can happen to anyone ever that you call a hotel your home! We all know every nook and corner of Marble Arch and Oxford like the gali in our locality. Oxford street was residence. Leicester Square, Piccadilly Sq, London Bridge, London eye, Big Ben are no more things we saw in movies or postcards or facebook pics of other people for that matter. It is now familiar, known and traversed. We have treaded all the paths of Leicester and all the lanes that took us to a good pub and good music. Camden market is Hill road, I can proclaim proudly today!
We all came with a ‘to do in London’ list and it feels so good to strike of one after the other ‘things we did in London!’ The only one thing I couldn’t do which I will regret is cycling around the lanes here. As I bid adieu to London I feel there is nothing in this life that you wish for and you do not get. I got what I wished for, and I shall never stop wishing!
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