It was the year 2000, exactly a year after my arrival in Bombay from Hyderabad. I was fed up with the advertising world because I was not getting due credit for my work. In April, I was jobless and saw a small ad in Suburban Plus (the supplement of Times of India, Bombay) and went to meet the respective copy editor Ms. Priya Hattiangadi. She was cordial and extended a positive response to start with. Please note I went to the office without even being a full-fledged or a trained journalist. All I knew was, I wanted to write to earn my living to survive in Bombay. She asked me to contact the staff photographer Navin Bhanushali (who later turned out to be my friend Shachi Bhanushali’s relative) and start contributing articles on a regular basis.

Navin Bhanushali was very supportive and my first assignment was to cover a beauty pageant of Dombivli, a suburb close to Bombay. May 7^th 2000, I made my entry into the world of journalism, without realizing how many lives I would be connected with, in the coming years. It was at the pageant that I saw Sonali Khare, former Miss Dombivli, who was felicitated by the organizer, to make her entry in Bollywood. A few enquiries and I got her phone number and the appointment was set.

Sonali Khare was very raw and a true suburb girl. Down-to-earth, a typical middle class girl, who had bagged the coveted role of a drummer in TERE LIYE, a film about teenagers’ dream come true. Surprisingly, in our first meeting, we were very chilled out and at ease. Sonali has acted in many Marathi films and TV serials after TERE LIYE. However, her Bollywood dreams to make it big seems too far away even today. The reason in my opinion was that Sonali is not a go-getter and is content the way her career took off. What always remind me about her is that she was so naïve when I was interviewing her. Full of innocence, she didn’t even know what a ‘casting couch’ was all about in Bollywood!

Honestly, I was surprised when I asked her, “So how was the experience with the casting couch?” She really didn’t understand my question and said very enthusiastically, “Well! It was very nice!” I looked at her in disbelief and realized how naïve and ignorant suburb girls are about Bollywood and outside world. I asked her, “Do you know Sonali what a casting couch is?” She nodded for a no and when I told her, she was aghast, embarrassed and we ended up having a hearty laugh, much to her amazement. I don’t blame Sonali because, honestly, she didn’t have any idea whatsoever about casting couch. Perhaps it was the first time she had heard the word from someone.

Over the years, after my quarter page article, that appeared on 19^th May 2000 (the first ever article of mine) in Suburban Plus – Times of India, we did meet couple of times and were friendly for a year or so. However, sad to say, she had moved ahead in life after the debacle of her debut film TERE LIYE. Success surely had gone to her head and I still cannot forget those innocent look on her pretty face and the casting couch joke!

Today, Sonali Khare has made her presence felt in Marathi (Regional films) and serials and is a busy star. She’s content and looks after her mother with all her love and care. So far, we haven’t bumped into each other and I really don’t know how we would react if at all we meet again?