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I was so excited that i was gonna get to go and present my film at the 4th Bollywood and Beyond film festival… Since it was also my first long flight a lot of preparations were gone in ensuring i go well prepared… clothes, perfume, shoes and most important of all the e - ticket. Something that i was gonna use it for the first time…

The flight was a connecting one and it was scheduled to depart at 3:00 Am in the morning and we were supposed to report three hours well in advance at the airport. Now being a non frequent flyer like a good boy I reached the airport in time… i had an experience of flying to Oman for the shooting of a Song for RGV’s ‘Naach’ and one which i had for the Karachi International Film Festival last year…

My newly married friend Rutesh and Sudhir came to drop me at the airport. As i was looking forward to meeting someone who was visiting the same festival. Though my eyes were searching for Rajat kapoor and Ayesha Dharker as these were the only two faces I knew. As i entered the airport with my e ticket, i saw people guiding the lufthansa people us to que in a particular line… as i was treading slowly my eys went to one of ther indicators which read LH 756 sceduled to depart at Four AM in the morning…

Bloody that meant i was gonna be there for four frakinn hours all by myself… my eye still looking for somone familiar… Luggage was checked in, and i was closely guarding my ruksack which had the only print that i was asked to carry and a roll of posters which our PFC friend CC had helped me getting them printed, and mind you guys he actually went out of the way to ensure that i don’t go without them for which I am extremely thankful.
I downloaded the designs from Sachin who was sick and was in his native town at Kolhapur. Had it not for these two guys I dont think I would hav even had a single poster for my film… and they did a good job… as all the credit goes to them.

Another of our PFC friends is in constant touch with me… as he called.. and kept giving me company on phone till two am when i saw a call waiting… this call was from my bro - in - law to ensure that i had managed to reach inside properly and everything was all well… and the guy who was talking to me before my B_I_L was none other our very own Manjeet Singh…

He called back again after a while as by now the flight had announced… i didnt see anybody famliar except a lady sleeping on the couches, and other passengers, i was hungry and totally bored to death…

Somehow the flight came and we boarded… this was my first flight in a 757 kind of an aircraft and i just was enamoured by the size of it… searching for my seat i reached 41H, and ther was alreeady a gentleman sitting at the window seat, Indian at heart that I am. I tld him that he was sitting on my seat, and the window seat was mine… The gentle gentleman seemed to have an expression on his face which read “aise kaise ho sakta hain?” (how can this be?) so he got up from his seat and read something written under the seat numbers and told me no, mine was an isle seat and he was sitting in the right seat, as he also was a frequent flyer which i got to know the next day…

The flight took of… I was really embarassed for the seat fiasco… but i couldnt have done anything as i am not used to it… within in an hours time some 20,000 feet above the sea level I freaking got something to eat… of course the beer was a great relief. Bored, tired I dozed of as i didnt want to think anything about being in the air for the next seven hours.

I opened my eyes… the steward and the hostesses had already started serving the next round of snacks, tea, coffee and drinks as this gentleman looked at me and asked where was I going? and I replied Stuttgart… “oh so are u also going with your film to Stuttgart for the Bollywood and beyond film festival?” “yes” I said politely. As he replied “Halo, I too am going there with my film Luka Chipi and my name is Vinod Ganatra the director of this film”.

As Vinod told me that there was Ketan Anand too on the same flight who was going to screen a tribute to his father the late Chetan Anand through his film ‘Poetics of Films’ and the same lady whom I had seen resting at the airport and was sitting in front of me was none other than Paromita Vohra the winner of the documentary film award this year called Q2P.

The flight landed late… we all ganged up as i was introduced to Ketan and Paromita. In the process as we were walking the length of the frankfurt airport I was informed that this was one of the worlds biggest airports…

Finally we reached to the concerned terminal only to be informed that we have missed the connecting flight to stuttgart, and the next flight was only after four hours… we explored options as we also met Shekhar Das and his producer friend Chandu who too were headed the same way…

Though exhausted we had a good time gtting to know each other and chatting with Ketan and Paromita was a great experience… a lot of phone calls were made and we were told that its better we take the one thirty flight and reach Stuttgart, which we did to a warm welcome by Julia, Rahul and Suraj from the guest management team…

I was feeling and enjoying the every moment of being in stuttgart… the air, the landscape and the overall beauty of a place which at once was completely destroyed during the second world war.

As it is we were so late… and the festival had already started we had just a little more than an hour after reaching Hotel Mercure to get ready, as Julia was supposed to come and pick us up form out hotel to take us to a warm welcome at the red carpet at METROPOL where our films wer supposed to be screened…

We reached at the metropol, and as i was just getting out of the car i saw one lady trying very hard to capture the moment, we were welcomed and this lady called “Surya” it was none other than our very own PFCite Babasko or barbara who had travelled all the way from Austria Vienna to be with me to see my short film 0:0 PM…

The formalities were complete and we had a group picture taken, books were signed… drinks were downed as we went to the opening ceremony inside… Oliver Mahn welcomed all the Guests Mr. Lapp made his speech and the opening film ‘Outsourced’ by John Jeffcoat was screened. Actors Josh hamilton and Ayesha Dharker too were present. And it was worth having that film as the opening film of the festival which also won the audience award at the festival…

The second day I reached the venue at the fIndian food festival where we were supposed to be interviewed… Julia came smiling and told me that i was doing the interviews…

Holy shit, I said “NO”, actually I was suppossed to, but somewhere in the process me and wiebke had not confirmed with each other, so i took it for granted that i was not doing it. And here was a bomb… I am thiking I am going to be interviewed and what I get to know its not be who is being interviewed but its I am the one who is supposed to be interviewing the guests, and guess what? that too on a proper TV set up….

Somehow I gathered courage and the whole day went in Interviewing Directors of various film and short films which included the Team of Outsorced, Ketan Anand, Paromita Vohra (Q2P), Nitin Shingal (Kindle), Rita rani (bombay Skies), Pooja Kumar (1001 Auditions), Uma Da Cunha (the curator of the festival), Aniruddha Roy chaudhury (Anuranna - a resonance) I was also supposed to interview Rajat kapoor but his flight got delayed and I missed the opportunity… It was quiet a tiring day.

The next day was my screening and I was very excited that my film was supposed to be screened… our itinery that day included a tour of stuttgart followed by our screenings. The entire team was in one bus having fun exploring the city as the anchor of our tour gets a call, and i hear her trying to pronounce my name Surrr… Surrren…. Surrendder… Is there any body in the team Surendra? The first though thought that came to mind was about taking interviews… but I was informed that there was some problem ith my print and that they were trying to sort that problem out…. “mere munh ka paani chala gaya” (my mouth went dry) as my mind just didnt want to think of the worse….
Ketan, Vinod kept consoling me that its gonna be fine and Wiebke had my DVD’s… just in case… so that was a relief….

Immediately I reached Metropol and met Wiebke, she assured me that things will be fine I need not worry in case there is a problem with my film, they stop and run the dvd to which I was totally ok… I was completely tensed and they were supposed screen my short first…

Sandra or Ulrike one of their volunteers came… the films were running in the competition section… and i was introduced to the audience, so was my film and the lights went of….

My film started and to my surprise nad the worst fear i had Friday the 13th was really bad… the head of my characters was cut and we couldnt see their faces… some problems with the Projector and its lens…. immediately the film was stopped… and mid u… just before that our another PFC friend had com flying down all the way from Wolverhampton just to see my film… he was none other than our very own Steve… babasko on right holding my right arm, steve on left holding my left arm… I didnt know how to react… cut to….

Another screening now its playing on the dvd… the same dvd which was played for the jury again and again and again. Half the film went of and it hung…. my bad luck… It just killed me… I was a bit upset… what worse can happen to anybody than this? Kindle by Nitin Shingal was played, So was Bombay Skies by Rita Rani, while this was happening the projectionist had quickly run into another room took my dvd and checked in his computer, and it played from start to end…

We were in the theatre… Babasko and Steve still holding my arm… as the nest film i saw was 0:0PM by none other than Surendra Hiwarale again… friday the 13th was royally fucking my happiness… I could count my heart beats… it said “dhak dhak karne laga, O mera jiyara jalne laga” as the film was progressing from one scene to another smoothly till it stopped again refusing to move ahead… And that was it as Ketan told me to go and ask to stop my film and have a screening tomorrow again…

I left the auditorium… only to know what we could have done about it the next day…. Babasko and Steve kept sitting inside as probably they didnt have the courage to see me immediately than….

Wiebke and everybody were so apologetic for no faults of theirs, as she promised that no matter what she would have a show for me tommorrow as I kept waiting for the next day…. 14th July.