Somewhere between a dream and the distant past this face has lived for ever and came back each time I picked up a fairytale. I have reminisced it each time I heard or recalled the story The Elves and the Shoemaker (Grimm brothers). Yesterday, when I saw and met Riaasat Ali for the first time in the Imperial Hotel my first question to myself was ‘Is he for real?’ For the fear of losing him soon I wanted to make a wish. I so very much wanted him to fulfill that wish. Facing him I quickly thought of a wish and said it whispering it to his sparkling eyes. I wanted to see him swirl up and rise like a jinn, glide over my head and land lightly on my shoulder. I dabbed my right shoulder flattening it so he may land comfortably. I wanted to feel him, smell him and hear him say in Sindarin “I just like to smile. Smiling’s my favourite”(remember Buddy said it in the film ‘Elf’). I had to pinch myself to make sure that I was not hallucinating, that I was not walking in sleep, that this man sawing a plank of wood was for real. It took me back to my childhood to my story books, to the elf whom I wished to complete my homework. Riaasat Ali slogged the whole night to make ready an exhibition arena for a public health organisation that was to set the tone for ‘how to deal with the next crisis’. In the melee of workers in that plush Ballroom with crystal chandeliers hanging from high ceilings I looked for another elf, a group of elves who would smile and know I had recognised their ilk. With early dawn my elf Riaasat disappeared without a trace in the misty outdoors of that ‘hotel from the Raj’. Does this face remind you of a fairy character? But before he disappeared he shook hands with me, smiled and permitted me to take a picture. Thank you ‘Elf Riaasat’.

On the night of 30 January 2023 at Hotel Imperial, Janpath, Delhi