so I met Steve Ballmer

I know a post like this rarely makes sense without the funny snap, where the celebrity is nauseous, the host is excited and the person clicking is a stranger or a furious friend. but the snap was not to be.

I was having some food at Chipotle, with a couple of my friends. When we entered, there was no queue at all. We ordered our bowl and settled down along with soda. A couple of minutes and the queue increased, and second last among 20 people or so, Steve Ballmer was standing. My friend, yelled to me, ‘looks like STEVE BALLMER.’ I lifted my head and had a look, and there he was.

I said, ‘Hey Steve.’ to confirm, and he acknowledged back with a "Hey" from the queue. We consciously didn’t stare at him.

A couple of people with Microsoft Jackets were right behind him, chatting and they took a snap. We felt like getting up, disrupting the queue and getting a snap. But thought, let us get hold of him, when he finishes the TO GO order. So he stood for 10 minutes in the big queue, ordered his food for the kids in his car (Black Range Rover) outside.

As he paid, dropped some charity coins and was leaving, we deserted our table. Checking his email, he hit the pillar ever so slightly when he turned back, and recovered. We cut him on his way out. My friend shook hands with him and said, “Hi Steve, I work for the Windows OS Group.” He said, “Nice, Nice, Nice” in a rushed smiling manner. I said, “Good to see you. Can you please share a snap with us?” as he approached the door. And there it was, “I am really in a rush to get food for my kids. I am sorry.” He rushed off in his car, driving by himself, talking on the cell.

“Maybe we should have interrupted the queue, or joined it, or asked him again, or caught him earlier, or went outside, or persisted, or done some damn thing just for the stupid snap.” We joked continuously.

No mad rush of people, no one went crazy, no one stared like they have spotted an alien, no one in the queue was flustered to squeak and offer him an advance for the 10 minutes, the counter people were sane, the cashier exchanged some smiles without any bungee jumping, the people had an occasional glance, there was no chauffer, and nothing abnormal happened in the 15 minutes. I cannot assure even one of the above things, if it was India and even for a lesser celebrity.

snap or no snap, like the millions around the world, just the meeting gets out a blog post on a good Sunday, when I had no plans of writing one.