The Disgraced Star

[Every story has a background. This story was conceived when standard XII Arts B students talked to me about their problem of writing a story. I told them that all the notes, tips and so on would not help them much unless they took to writing stories passionately. The best way to learn story writing is by trying to write a story yourself. I asked them to write a story with the above title. Initially I had asked them to write with the title ‘The Fallen Star’ but I changed it to the above title later. I finished writing half of the story in the class itself. I even shared it with Ms. Sangay Lhamo. I finished the rest of it after getting back home this afternoon.]

A piece of news published in the Kuensel, the national newspaper of Bhutan, caught my attention as I was sipping my coffee in bed. My wife, Tshewang, was in the bathtub. She was freakish about having a shower almost on a regular basis and there was an aura, a glow about her that would put even the Lux girl to shame.

‘The celebrated actor of yesteryears, Ms. Gaki Choden ( she remained a spinster till the end due to her failed marriages) passed away in the early hours of the morning today. She succumbed to her suicide attempt last night by taking an overdose of the sleeping pills prescribed by her personal physician.

She was rushed to the National Referral Hospital at around 2 O’ Clock in a critical condition and admitted in the ICU. What prompted her to take her life is yet unknown. The city police are investing the case….’.

Gaki Choden, more popularly known as ‘Gaki’ was the heartthrob of thousands of Bhutanese film buffs. There was a time, during my college days, when the very mention of her name gave me the goosebumps. It was at Sherubtse, way back in th early 1990s that Namgay, my roommate and best buddy, asked me one day after college, to accompany him to ‘Am Deki’s’ a restaurant some 300 meters or so from the college gate. Am Deki’s was very popular with the Sherubtsians as the owner; Am Deki was a friendly lady who allowed us to have our fill occasionally there on credit. There was another reason why we used to frequent her canteen. It was her daughter, Thewang. She had recently returned to Tashigang after her graduation from St. Joseph’s at Kalimpong. She was a beauty in the truest sense of the term and the Sherubtse boys went fida at the very sight of her.

The canteen was surprisingly desolate at that time in the afternoon. I followed Namgay across the big room through another to a small yet well kept room at the back. On entering I found Tshewang trying to insert a cassette into a DVD player on top of the TV set. She looked up and said a hasty ‘Hi’ to us. As the screen came alive, she then left the room. At Namgay’s signal, I eased myself into the couch in front of the TV. It did not take me long to understand that Namgay had arranged for a movie and we were going to spend the afternoon watching a Bollywood blockbuster. I was pleasantly surprised when the title “Tshewe Ditshe” was displayed across the screen. In English the title would read: Immortal Love.

The next two hours found me in a daze as that day for the first time I fell in love with a Bhutanese beauty called Gaki Choden. She carried the film single handed on her shoulder and her performance in the film was nothing short of spectacular. Even the popular comedian Thinley Phurba played second fiddle to her charismatic presence in the film. Gaki Choden became my craze after this. I would watch every single movie starring her. Her life-size picture adorned the wall at the head of my bed. I would wake up every morning wishing her and I wouldn’t go to bed without saying ‘good night’ to her. I tried to collect every bits and pieces of news featuring her in the papers and magazines. It was as if she had cast a spell on me and my friends would make fun of my infatuation with her. I even told Namgay once that I would drive her off her feet and run away with her far from the maddening crowd one day!

After passing out of Sherubtse, I went to Australia for my Master’s. Gaki Choden was still my first love. I came back and joined a multinational company as the Managing Director. I found it very difficult to drive Gaki out of my mind even then. Then one Saturday afternoon as I was about to leave my office, Cheku, who is popularly known as ‘Dada’ in the Bhutanese film industry and presently its Chairman, rang me up to let me know that he was heading to Paro in connection with the Film Awards and wanted to know if I would be interested in joining him. The very idea brought the thought of Gaki Choden to my mind and I asked him to pick me up from my residence at around 3 in the afternoon. By the way, I forgot to tell you that Gaki was at the zenith of her popularity at around this time and was said to be having a whirlwind affair with an emerging Bhutanese film star, young enough to be her son called Kencho Tshering!

That Saturday night was a blackest night in my life so far. Gaki Choden as expected stole the show. She won the Best Actress Award for her mesmerising role in the first Bhutanese feature film entitled “Gaki-Stranger than Fiction” made on her life. The movie broke all box office records. Gaki also won an Award for Life Time Achievement for her contributions to the Bhutanese Movie Industry,

It was right after the dinner when Cheku introduced me to her. Almost straight away I spoke to her about my lifelong infatuation for her. I even told her of my childish desire to take her far away from the world. As people had started taking to the dance floor, I asked her if she would be interested in dancing with me. She totally misread into my suggestion and sought out Kencho Tshering. I met her a couple of times more after the Award Nite but my feelings of admiration, love and respect had been jolted by her arrogant, haughty, unearthly behaviour of the night . I realized that ‘East is East and West is West and never the twin can meet.’ I left Gaki to let her seek pleasure from her make-believe world from that night on.

Tossing the newspaper away, I pulled the blanket up to cover my face against the early chill of the morning, when my dearest wife came out of her shower. Her head covered with a spotlessly white towel smelling of her favourite perfume that drove me crazy. She looked like a picture at that precise moment and I had the irresistible desire to hold her in my arms again.

“What’s the program, Love?” I uttered.

“Way! You’ve forgotten or what? Some prospective buyers’re coming to have a look at our apartment today. We’ll move back to our village after you call the quits, remember?’

“I do, Tshewang. I never imagined that I’d live to see such a day. Anyway, I don’t mind the quiet of the village life as long as you are there with me….”

The End
P.S: It would be wrong on my part to wind up without telling you that today some 4 students shared their stories in the class and I was left speechless and stranded by the beauty of all four stories! A country that has such talented students, is sure to shine. God bless Bhutan and her people.