Actor Neeraj Madhav, who rose to fame after essaying the role of Moosa Rehman, an antagonist in Amazon Prime Video’s The Family Man, shared his life experiences in a heartfelt piece for Humans of Bombay, a popular Mumbai-based Facebook page. Neeraj’s post comes at a time when he is gearing up for the release of the upcoming romantic anthology series Feels Like Ishq, which will stream on Over-the-top (OTT) platform Netflix India. Staying in theme with the show’s genre, the actor wrote about his first crush and shared his personal experiences with respect to romantic relationships. He also shared three images of himself - a photo along with his wife and child, a photo from his teenage years and one that is similar to his look in the upcoming series Feels Like Ishq.
In his post, he recalled the time he met his first crush in school and described the emotions he felt for her. "I've studied in an all-boys school which meant I had little female interaction. So dating someone was out of the question because I was awkward around girls. That was until the 12th grade-that's when I had my first crush,” Neeraj wrote.
From feeling butterflies to smiling endlessly, he recounted how he loved meeting her. "I met her at a coaching centre; she was in another batch. We bumped into each other at the water dispenser; I noticed her kohl rimmed big brown eyes. They were so captivating. For the first time, I felt butterflies. The rest of the day was a blur, but I remember smiling a lot,” the post read.
Wallowing in nostalgia, Neeraj described his old-school love story. “Every day, I'd look forward to my classes. We didn't speak, but sometimes, she'd smile at me and I'd turn into a red tomato! We boarded buses from different stops, but I'd wait at her stop till she left and then walk towards mine. It was our little ritual. Some of my school friends waited with me and pushed me to speak to her but I couldn't. So, what followed was sheer embarrassment," he said.
However, he noted how things came to an abrupt end once he left his classes. He also noted how it was difficult to keep in touch, given social networking sites like Facebook weren’t available at those times. Neeraj wrote: "Meanwhile, I was training for a dance reality show. And so, when I got in, I left my classes. My last day there was the last time I saw her. Back then there was no FB and I didn't have a phone; there was no way of staying in touch. Over time, I moved out of the city. But I'd think about her sometimes.”
“And then once, a girl called me. She didn't say who she was but she knew about the shirt I wore on my farewell and my favourite food joint in my hometown. I couldn't confirm it but I knew it was her! Obviously it didn't turn out to be anything," an excerpt from the post read.
After sharing a snippet of his personal experiences, he added that he has been happily married for 10 years now and the couple have a beautiful daughter. Drawing parallels between the emotions he felt for his first crush versus his idea of love at present, The Family Man actor wrote, “While I’m amazed that as a teenager I felt such strong emotions for someone, love for me is no longer about the butterflies but rather about the feeling of coming home.”
Below the post, Neeraj said that his piece is a throwback to times when love was simple and announced that the trailer of his upcoming project Feels like Ishq will be out on June 30. He also clarified in the comment section that the story he shared was about his “unfulfilled school time crush”, which he was discussing in the context of the Netflix series. However, he mentioned that he is reserving the story about his romantic relationship with his wife for some other time.
Read the full post here: