Josh – The boy who wanted to touch the stars !!!!!!!!!!!!

                   Josh – The boy who wanted to touch the stars !!!!!!!!!!!!

It all began in a small town where a bright young ambitious boy, lying on the cot of the terrace in his old house pointed out at the night sky, “Look mother there goes another one!!!!” he pointed out to one of the stars .

The sky was all dazzled up with stars shining like diamonds. It was a beautiful night sky. “Josh” sleep now you have to go to the school tomorrow shouted his father from the room downstairs.” “O Daddy !!!!!

I will sleep you don’t worry. “ he replied.

“O mumma I want to go and touch the sky, I want to feel the stars in my hands ………..it is all so amazing”, Joe said excitedly to his mother. “Alright my boy we will speak about it !!!! You are too young now”, she cuddled him and made him sleep right next to him.

This is a story of a boy from a small town born to middle class  parents. His father was a cop and his mother a housewife. Being the youngest amongst the siblings he had 3 sisters besides him ,  and ofcourse he was the most pampered as well.

His elder sisters were overprotective of him as he was a sweet naïve child for all of them. School was fun time and all the children were very good at studies. Josh was such a meticulous student and so hardworking that all his friends and teachers were fond of him. As he had a fascination for “STARS” , he opted for Science stream in his high school. Physics and mathematics were his favourite subjects and he knew that to know the mysticism of the “Diamonds “ in the sky ,  only “Science “ can help him.

He topped his school and got such good marks that his dream appeared to be near fulfillment. A boy who had an ardent interest in space and its secrets , appeared  in one of the toughest competitive engineering examination in the country with lakhs of competitors  and scored “7^th “ rank amongst 10,0000 students. Naturally, as luck would have it – he made it to one of the finest colleges in the country.

He had dreamy eyes and an innocent heart. With great zeal , he pursued his studies in the college. The hostel days were lot of hanging around and fun with friends.

“Hey Josh !!!!!!! Whats up buddy?”, waved his batchmate to him, once he was on his way to attend a lecture. “Nothing dude!!!!!!! Life’s cool” grinned Josh.

Evenings were spent in the canteens and bike racing with the peers. “ Hey !!!! There are not much pretty girls in our college!!! “ pointed out Swamy , a cool dude from the gang.

“Yeh Man!!” I agree and saying this Josh and his friends started looking at a couple of girls enough to be qualified for “Pretty” in the college campus.

“Let’s join dance class!!!” , yelled a friend Sanjay one day. “ There is a cool dance class that I just attended and it’s one of the best in the country which will not only polish our dance skills but also introduce us to some beautiful chics to hang around with”, hearing this all the boys burst out in laughter.

“WOW !!!!!!!Dude this is heaven “, Josh was thrilled on seeing the dance institute. It was one of the finest courses he got enrolled in . It was a mix of  hiphop, jazz and contemporary dance forms. Josh had a strong body, was tall and yes could be called “Handsome “ as well from all the angles onc could be. Naturally, he made many friends including girls , and got back the spark in his life.

“DANCE “ got into him so much that he made a blunt declaration one day in front of his parents. “ I want to leave engineering and get into entertainment industry” .

“HEY JOSH!!!!Dont do this “, cried his father. “You are such a bright student doing so well !” And there is just another semester left and then you will become a qualified engineer and you could land up in one of the best jobs in the country or even overseas”.

“Exactly !! Our sweet little baby brother” , his sisters embraced him, kissed him and tried to persuade him.

“And yes !!!!! You wanted to touch the stars dint you”, smiled his mother coaxing him hard not to leave studies.

“No dad “ I am just leaving the course but not studies. I will keep on studying physics as Astronomy is one of my dream subject. “ I am leaving the formal education structure …..not education”.

His parents were as helpless as anyone can be. They knew that their son is not going to continue with his formal education as they were aware how adamant he was.

“I want to build up the biggest library in the world as I believe knowledge has to be diverse.” Josh told his friends. He indeed had a wide range of books on religion, spirituality, scientific discoveries, autobiography of great people, history of the world, anthropology, language , drama , plays etc etc…………..of all the possible genres books can be listed, was a part of his collection. He was not only interested in the physical world but Metaphysical also excited him as much.

He always had a strange longing to venture into the “Unknown”. As “ Known “ is so limited, a free personality like him wanted to explore all the possible dimensions of life as well as afterlife. He was an intellectual , deep person, a philosopher at heart.

“Entertainment “ became  his new love and career. He had already become a professional due to his sheer hard work and dedication. He got lucky and developed contacts with a few friends in the television industry. He got his first break in a daily soap. Never had he imagined in his life that he would become such a big hit in a mere span of two years. He participated in many dance and reality shows and won great acknowledgement for his work.  He starred in many television ad commercials, modeling projects and success seemed to know no bounds for him.

His popularity began to grow and he became a common name in the household. On personal front however,  a  very grave tragedy struck him and he lost his mother. He was very attached to her and though it was a huge loss for him, he being a strong person somehow bore it with perseverance.

Shooting for long intervals for the Daily Soap brought him close to a co-actress “Mandika”. She was equally talented and had a great affinity for “Josh”.

“Josh” was also attracted to her. The two grew so fond of each other that they planned to get married after some years.

Mandika was a smart and caring girl and made every possible effort to understand “Josh”. Josh also took time out for her and pampered her with all the possible happiness a guy could shower on his girl.

Both went for long drives together and would walk together hand in hand on the beaches mostly in the night , as sea appeared to be mesmerizing in the night. And as he was fond of the night sky , the whole world seemed to be a beautiful dream for Josh, a bright career and the support of the lady of his dreams. There was another side to his personality , though being so popular, he was somehow an introvert and a loner at heart who also liked to spend time alone reading books and playing with his pet “Jug” .  

Television success , opened the doors of new opportunities for Josh and he was offered the first film of his life, which gifted him spectacular success. Films after films rose him to the peak of success in his career and somehow he couldn’t spare much time with Mandika who was still a small “TV” actress as compared to JOSH who was a big “star” now.

With time, the distance grew between them and unfortunately led to their breakup after a couple of years.

Now the little “STAR “ gazing boy had become a “SUPERSTAR “ of the film industry. They say “SUCCESS wins you many false friends and true enemies”, the same applied in the professional life of “Josh” as well.

His stardom and success bothered many established actors and stars who had ruled the film industry for many decades now. “NEPOTISM”, “Favouritism “, “Underworld” was deep rooted in the whole entertainment industry . “OUTSIDERS” like Josh were not liked by many people.

His huge fan following, talent, knowledge , depth , academic expertise caused a lot of insecurity to some big shots who wanted him to leave the industry as early as possible.

Some of the big production houses denied him work, and his film projects were snatched from him and given to some other actors.

Even the other star sons and daughters used to mock him and would leave no stone unturned to insult him. They knew in their hearts that they could not touch him neither in his knowledge nor his talent.

The award functions though were kind enough to applaud his work and give him a couple of awards as well but “JOSH” was primarily hated by some of his co-actors.

Josh , being a brilliant student , a great physicist however was not the one to give up and he continued with his hard work and never give up attitude.

His hard work was indeed blessed and despite the odds he was able to form a successful name for himself in the film industry. His fans loved him, he was appreciated by some good people in the industry and that’s what kept going for him.

Josh was a person of taste and had kept his house very well decorated. His house adorned the whole time machine kind of stuff which ranged from the sculptures, paintings and manuscripts of the historic era to the most modern and updated gadgets, science modals, books of discoveries and the most phenomenal gadget his “ULTRA MODERN – HIGH END TELESCOPE”. Yes , he had a telescope for himself. His passion for the space had a place in his home as well.

Not only had he purchased the amazing gadget , but he had also bought a piece of land on the moon. He was also honored and had a opportunity to visit the biggest space research centre as well owing to his outstanding contribution as he had written a  brilliant research paper on Astrophysics.

One of his most outstanding movie that he had acted in was a biopic of a famous cricketer. Josh was such a sincere actor that he spent nearly an year learning the game and also hit the famous “Helicopter shot” which was only struck by the cricketer himself previously.

Josh also had a craze for bikes and cars and bought a very sophisticated luxury car for himself.

As time rolled on, once he was approached for help by a beautiful young girl for a break in modeling. Josh was a benevolent guy and helped her in every possible way he could. “Rita”, the girl was a young talented and chirpy girl full of life. Josh’s introduction and help led her a success in modeling.

Due to continuous interaction of the two, they both came closer and fell in love with each other. She became his girlfriend and starting living with him in his posh apartment. Josh’s career also picked up again and he was offered some very good film projects. Though “Nepotism “ and “ Favouritism “ were the quintessential of the industry, that however, dint stop “Josh” from becoming what he wanted to.

He knew his way, his journey and the path that he was treading. A man of few words and a person of actions , he took life the way it came with all its pains and pleasures. He was quite unnerved in both success and failures and used to say that even if he has no work if bad time ever struck him, he would buy a high end camera for himself and will shoot short films himself. Such was his never dying spirit.

Once, while he was shooting for his film, he saw a mentally disturbed young beggar girl across the busy road. So touched he became that after the shoot, he took her to his posh hotel room and gave her food to eat and clothes to wear. He even fed her with his own hands.

He would never ever shy away from posing with the street vendor fans of his, the balloon vendors, or children from poor economic backgrounds. Never , had he any star tantrums at all.

His other sisters also prospered as much. One of them became a famous cricketer of the woman’s team, the other was a popular fashion designer and the third one took admission in a prestigious technical course and bagged a handsome job in a good company later.

People just loved him for his simple down to earth nature, a pleasing personality and a cute smile on his face. Millions of people became crazy for him. After a while, on the personal front however some rift started building up between Rita and him, as Rita was a very shrewd girl and after becoming successful, she made Josh invest millions in companies set up by her and her brother. Josh was very innocent and dint understand  ways of the world and thought that Rita loved him truly, whereas Rita became attracted to a much older successful director who promised her a good career and future in the industry. She started betraying his trust and cheated him.

“Good things don’t last” , happened in this case as well. On an unfortunate Sunday afternoon, somewhere around the mid of June month , the whole world was left in a deep shock on learning about the news of “Josh’s suicide”. He hung himself by a fan in his house , were the details that were provided in the news. His millions of fans were heart broken . His family was shattered , his old father was not able to bear the shock and felt unconscious again and again. His sisters were painstruck with the horrible news.

It was really hard to believe such a strong, full of life , intelligent, young man, so successful and popular could ever think of taking his own life. A person who was a role modal for the youth , would give up on life like this.

A few hours later, one of his co-stars came up with another shocking statement. She said that “Josh” had not committed suicide but was killed. This added to further frustration of the people. Their hearts which were broken by the pain and sadness were now filled with anger and rage. They could not stand that anyone would even want to kill such a pure, innocent soul. Rumours followed that the big shots of the industry had planned his murder and it was all made up to look like suicide. The infamous “Nepotism” in the industry was held responsible for his untimely demise. Soon after , the social media was flooded by the campaign for justice for “Josh” and all over the world people demanded enquiry and detailed review of the case. Many influential people came to his rescue. The man who dreamt of “stars”, who became a big “Star” of the entertainment industry , became a “Star “ of the night sky that he always dreamt for. The mysticism , the mystery and many secrets of his life went with him. So much his fans loved him that one of them , also registered a “ Star”  named after him. His journey is still not over in the hearts of the people that he will live in forever. He is still smiling from the skies above waiting for justice . Isn’t he ?