Previous Post In Blog’s 10th Anniversary Celebrations
Interview With “Mere Sai” Fame Abeer Soofi
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I am sure you must have enjoyed yesterday’s post of Interview With “Mere Sai” Fame Abeer Soofi. Reaching there was not an easy journey, but because it was blessed by Lord Sai Baba and He had added it in our destiny, it happened. The blog is an outcome of leelas and sports experienced by devotees of Lord Baba in their daily lives. We are not spared from this and we have been witnessing such miracles in every step we take for His service.
As in Bollywood terms Making are scenes shot but are not included in movie and everything that has happened behind scenes which is not part of project. Well in our interview with Abeer Soofi Ji there were no behind the scenes as everything was natural. But our Lord’s sports behind the scenes are worth narration. How can we be silent in this respect. So let’s begin with narration of the same
Initial Plotting
When thought of celebrating 10th Blog Anniversary came in my mind, I wasn’t sure what can be done except changing theme of blog which was 5 years old. This was need of the hour and so I had decided to do it when blog completes 10 years. Apart from this nothing was planned.
A thought came that on this occasion I can take interview of any famous personality which would interest to devotee readers. Thinking over such names I stumbled upon one which has become famous recently, yes it was Abeer Soofi Ji. Haww, I am in awe of his role. At times I felt that Lord Baba is answering me through him. I remember date December 21, 2017 when I first attended his Facebook live session & how lovingly he called my name & greeted me. He gave answers to my questions & also said “Allah Malik” on my request several times. It was then understood that he is simple person with kind heart. Then after many such sessions were attended & I thoroughly enjoyed them feeling some unknown connection with him. By and by he started recognizing me (I assume so). One day he was live at about 2 AM in morning and I woke up at 3:15 AM just to see a notification that he was live. I was dejected on learning that I missed live session. However I started sending him texts about my feelings on daily episodes & he used to see them, it was enough for me as i cant expect more from an actor. I used to feel happy on knowing that. All this made me courageous to text him one day about my idea of interviewing him in line to our blog’s 10th anniversary celebrations. In my excitement I forgot that I had texted him from my blog’s Facebook I’d whereas I used to attend his live sessions from my personal Facebook account and he knew me by that name only. However in both id’s only middle name was the difference. He didn’t see my text for days. To be honest I least expected any positive response. One night before sleeping I realized that I should have sent him texts via my personal account through which i was familiar to him. I did the same in no time and slept. Omg next day I received his positive reply. Unbelievable moment for me. I was happy dancing in joy and shared this news to our team members. They also seemed excited but all were a bit skeptical about its happening because in his reply he only had sent “Ok” while my text had a long story. However we all had faith on Lord Baba that if this happens it would be a “blessing”, if it doesn’t then it would be a “blessing in disguise”.
Next step was to follow up with him to get an appointment. I thought somebody who is from Mumbai can go to set and met him or his team personally and request for an appointment. But feasibility of such thing was less and time was flying. Somehow with continuous texts for days, he replied to ping him on March 16. The wait was tough and also the possibility to get an appointment was rare, but i had no choice. I counted on days whereas on the other hand we started initial preparations of the interview like preparing questions, creating new logo, dress code, etc. If given choice i wished to travel on March 21 and interview him on March 22 as March 21 was last working day of my son Krishaang’s school and my husband could also take leave during that period. Now read along how days unfolded miracles and sports of our sweet Lord.
Tuesday, March 13
Sai sister Kriti was working on new logo and she sent me concept which i liked very much but we could not use same picture of Lord Baba which she had used due to copyright issues. This called for a long discussion on the point without any conclusion being arrived at. Still she said that she will try to do doddle something or make sketch of Lord Baba herself.
Thursday, March 15
Sai sister Amita, whom i have met recently but developed a good bonding, had come up to me with a dress which she wanted me to wear while interviewing Abeer ji and i liked it instantly. At the same time i was chatting with Kriti regarding logo and we were in awkward position as nothing was working out in regards to the logo. It strike to both of us that we can ask devotees in our groups if anyone can provide us with fresh sketch. I was excited and also waited for dawn of next day i.e. March 16 to get reply of Abeer ji.
Friday, March 16
Finally it was morning of March 16, and i sent him a text as follows:
Abeer ji you are now a popular face among devotees & followers of Lord Sai Baba, & many more joining in this queue as they are seeing how this saint would be in His times, on screen. I have been into Baba’s fold since 2006 & from 2008 I started writing blogs on Him. That was His sole inspiration. I have experienced many miracles of Baba while blogging & now at this point when the blog is nearing completion of a decade, I can conclude that He is being doing everything, making me mere instrument. The idea of taking your interview for the blog clicked me because you are a face which we all relate with our beloved, many want to know you, how Baba’s grace made this possible, how were you taken in His fold, etc. It has been my experience that whatever readers of my blog wished that has been served them. This humble service appeases soul. Initially I was working alone on blogs, now we are team of 10. Many spiritual ventures on global level such as MahaParayan of Shri Sai Satcharitra, Naam Jaap, kids Naam Jaap, etc are being carried out. Many singers were launched by us on internet, book author’s books have been reviewed on our blog. Right now the foremost service is sharing experiences of devotees on our blog, this is being done from a decade & blog is now inferred title as “Modern Sai Satcharitra” by it’s readers.
Abeer ji you can understand that the journey of these 10 years has been extremely incredible, experienced grace of Baba in every step and now that our hard work of getting people into this path has been fruitful to some extent, I think you and your team are adding much more favor into our mission.
Kindly oblige us by giving us an interview date the following week so that my readers can connect with you through us.
P.S. We respect your privacy so only interview will be posted on blog via text & video.
I was continuously checking my phone to see if he has read my text or not. The whole day passed nothing progressed. Abeer ji had not even checked my texts, though he was online off and on that day.
I had been to market and there i received call from my husband saying that his leaves are shuffled and he had to be on work on March 21 and 22 which were precisely same dates when i was planning to travel for interview. I was down and hopeless. On one side Abeer ji hadn’t replied and on the other leaves were shuffled, now even if he agrees to those dates, how would we travel alone?
Sorts of tensions, anxiety and negativity was surrounding me. Even our blog team members were also tensed as message wasn’t seen. Some even tried to text him on their own accord and approach him. He was online off and on during the day but he had not seen my messages. This was haunting me to the core. At about 9 PM he seemed online and checked my message. A sense of relief ran in my nerves. But still there was no reply from him and this was again uncertain situation. Whole day i was getting messages from devotees sharing their sketches and trying to be of help to us, but i was looking for something new. I was sure Lord Baba has something in store and was waiting for that patiently not knowing how impatient situations were being framed by Him for me for the next couple of days.
Saturday, March 17
The morning was gloomy and morose. I could not think what was going to happen. Nothing seemed to be in my favor, husband’s leaves, logo, interview appointment, nothing. I was frustrated and got mad over smallest of things. Saturday is my Naam Jaap Day and i was doing it. My phone blinked with a message and it was from Abeer ji who tried to convince me that it was not possible for him to give any fixed time and date for interview as his shoot schedules might not allow that. Few channel people were behind him for interview last week, but it did not happen as he was busy. I explained him that we had to travel so need to know the date at least and we can wait. Even we can take interview in parts when he was free for sometime in between shoots. He reply was, “Ok, You come tomorrow”. I told him that we can come a day after. He had shoot and so he left without confirming. However it was 12 noon and if we had to reach Mumbai morning the next day on set for interview, ideally we had to leave the very same evening. This was impossible as our logo was not ready, leave alone logo we had not finalised sketch. Those who showed interest were contacted and all of them required time to create something new. I work from home so i did not have any professional outfit which suited scene of interview, so i had to rush to my regular tailor to get it stitched in few hours but he was unavailable as his daughter was hospitalized. My mother’s friend agreed to stitch it till night and she did it. Logo, interview questionnaire cards, banner, etc all were dependent on sketch of Lord Baba which we did not know in which direction to search. I remembered a lady from States texting me few sketches of Lord Baba by her known friend, i texted her and awaited her reply because that was their night time. She called and assured me to connect to the devotee and he called me within an hour.
I was very impatient while Mr. Bhaskar was calm. I requested (but my tone was like ordering) him to provide me with a sketch by his evening and our morning next day as then only Kriti will be able to work on our creatives. He agreed to it but my mind could hardly believe that i will get sketch as it was work of creativity and it certainly takes time. However it was Lord Baba’s pure blessings that a sketch was ready overnight while we were comprehending on it for last 2-3 days. My heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Bhaskar who didn’t grunge even once over such a short notice of requirement on our very first talk over phone.
Sunday, March 18 – The Travel Day
Again a situation which seemed out of control. Morning i received sketch but Kriti was busy in pooja as it was first day of Navratri. It would take two hours to print flex banners & we had to print questionnaire cards, visiting cards, logo cut outs as well because we want Abeer ji to inaugurate our new logo. Everything seemed tough to accomplish. My husband was adamant on leaving by 2 P.M. as he wanted to avoid traveling in dark. Till 12 Kriti created everything but there was no scope to get those creatives printed. I was literally in tears now. I had been strong and awaiting with patience in the show that Lord Baba was playing, but then my hopes were dead. My husband tried to console me down and said you have to be calm as interview is important, banners, logo cut outs and cards are of minimal value. But we can ask Pooja to get it printed and keep our fingers crossed. Your mom has prepared GudiPadwa lunch for us, go with good mood and enjoy lunch as i know you have not eaten good since yesterday. While i spend hours in front of wardrobe to select what to wear that day i picked up outfits randomly and packed. However only the dress for interview and its accessories were packed by Amita the earlier night and i did not pay attention to it.
We started our journey with name of Lord Baba and on the way i called Pooja and requested her to take print outs. She wasn’t sure as she lives in Pune, it was Sunday and a festival day. She was hesitant to ask her husband as he was busy. But somehow she gathered courage to convince her husband to go and take print outs. As already stated it was Sunday, her husband had hard time finding a printer and getting only banner printed. Initially i did not have guts to tell Pooja that Logo cut out, visiting cards and questionnaire cards were also be printed. However i shared this with hesitation and the same was passed on to her husband with same feelings. With continuous calls for about an hour or two finally she sent me pictures that everything got printed. I was relieved that everything got in shape in time. Now anxiety was about a good hotel as my husband preferred a good hotel with parking lot as he could take rest at night. Also next day we had planned to leave Mumbai immediately after interview. But Lord Baba took care of that also and we had good rest that night.
Monday, March 19 – The Interview Day
After many hurdles we reached Mumbai and were on the set as well. But anxiety was still prevailing as Abeer Ji has hinted probability of his unavailability. Other actors were coming but the wait of Abeer ji was killing. We waited for about two hours for him to come. But as soon as he entered, we surrounded him and he welcomed us with happy smile and he agreed that he will give interview the way i want and he would be available soon and free us in time so that we can leave Mumbai the very same day.
Soon then he left to get ready for shoot and we sat waiting for next two hours. When i realised that it was fifteen minutes past two and still there is no trace of Abeer Ji. I prayed Lord Baba in my mind that time is running so either i will have to leave without interview or have to wait for one more day by staying overnight in Mumbai. Both the cases were not in my favour. While this was going on in my mind a person from the crew came to us and asked our purpose of being there. I told him that we were waiting for Abeer ji for interview and requested him to convey message that we were still waiting for him and that we also had to leave for Baroda as soon as interview was done. He said he was free from long and now his shoot was ready. Oh, my hopes shattering again. Even after being on set it seemed impossible to take interview. This was passing in my mind and my mother exclaimed look look Abeer ji is seen and in seconds he marched towards us and said, “Chalo pucho (come ask), I am ready for interview”. We all put scattered chairs in order and gave him a seat. Initially all talking to him casually and we enjoyed every bit of those moments but how can we forget that we were there for our readers and so started asking him questions once he paused talking and presented questions.
Though the incident started with many probabilities, it ended with surety and the interview went on well as you have already read in yesterday’s post.
Kindly do not miss tomorrow’s post as we have important announcements like “We Are A Network Now – SaiYugNetwork.com” and we would be “Releasing Our Hindi Blog”
© Devotees Experiences with Shirdi Sai Baba
