Superstar mobbing
Sep. 13th, 2009 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
floraOnly one week in, and Michael is a celebrity! It's not at all good. He says he now knows what Harry Potter must feel like.
We were mobbed by MBA students. I've written a separate entry on the good parts of the event.
Michael and I went back to our apartment and changed into our new fancy Indian traditional costumes, "gerba wear". We arrived back around 9 PM, and sat in chairs at the back of the festival, away from the loud music. A couple students came up wanting to take our picture with their cell phones. That's fine; they don't see foreigners much, and never dressed up like us. So a few pictures are fine.
Then the couple students turned into a handful. A few more stopped by to see what was going on. A student asked Michael for his autograph. Shrug. Sure, okay. Then another student pulled out a ten-rupee note and also asked for an autograph. Soon everyone was doing it, and we were both signing. The crowd grew to 40 or 50, all pushing and trying to get Michael's autograph (and mine). We were feeling crowded, and the mass of bodies completely blocked off the light. The security guards came over and pushed through, and we grabbed our chairs and moved to the edge of the dance tent.
The dance was okay for a few minutes. One of the female faculty pulled me in to the circle to dance (I failed miserably, but enthusiastically). I was pouring sweat, so I went and sat down to drink some water for a moment. The students started gathering around us again, just as before. It was so bad that my husband, who never dances and had a broken toe, got up and hobbled around the circle once just to get away from them. I couldn't even see him, ten feet away, because of all the people in between. Soon after that, we left. We were only there for about 40 minutes. We just couldn't stay there.
We mentioned this to our host the next day, and he was very embarrassed. He apologized and politely said, in effect, the MBA students aren't as mature as the undergraduate engineering students and they don't have much sense. But yes, Michael is a celebrity. We hope it doesn't happen much again.
We were mobbed by MBA students. I've written a separate entry on the good parts of the event.
Michael and I went back to our apartment and changed into our new fancy Indian traditional costumes, "gerba wear". We arrived back around 9 PM, and sat in chairs at the back of the festival, away from the loud music. A couple students came up wanting to take our picture with their cell phones. That's fine; they don't see foreigners much, and never dressed up like us. So a few pictures are fine.
Then the couple students turned into a handful. A few more stopped by to see what was going on. A student asked Michael for his autograph. Shrug. Sure, okay. Then another student pulled out a ten-rupee note and also asked for an autograph. Soon everyone was doing it, and we were both signing. The crowd grew to 40 or 50, all pushing and trying to get Michael's autograph (and mine). We were feeling crowded, and the mass of bodies completely blocked off the light. The security guards came over and pushed through, and we grabbed our chairs and moved to the edge of the dance tent.
The dance was okay for a few minutes. One of the female faculty pulled me in to the circle to dance (I failed miserably, but enthusiastically). I was pouring sweat, so I went and sat down to drink some water for a moment. The students started gathering around us again, just as before. It was so bad that my husband, who never dances and had a broken toe, got up and hobbled around the circle once just to get away from them. I couldn't even see him, ten feet away, because of all the people in between. Soon after that, we left. We were only there for about 40 minutes. We just couldn't stay there.
We mentioned this to our host the next day, and he was very embarrassed. He apologized and politely said, in effect, the MBA students aren't as mature as the undergraduate engineering students and they don't have much sense. But yes, Michael is a celebrity. We hope it doesn't happen much again.
