By Jerry Pinto

Lubna Adam -- model, choreographer and groomer of new talent -- is a woman waiting to pick up a new gauntlet

Okay, so how many times have you heard a line like this?

Several, huh? It's the kind of line that every actor-turned-director, film-maker-turned-interior-decorator, hair-stylist-turned-ionologist, whatever, spouts at some point. It's the line that explains all, and it has the added attraction of incorporating one of the greatest fears of the 20th century -- boredom.

But when Lubna Adam says it, you begin to believe.

There she is on the baking terrace of a sunscorched building, facing a camera with no make-up on. In the world of glamour, this is a no-no.

Besides which there is the air of constant motion to her. As she speaks, everything is in motion. Her hands, her feet, her head, her hair, everything. She isn't hyper; she's restless and you believe that it could just have happened the way she says it did.

"I began my modelling career when I went to a fashion show. The Silla sisters came up to me and asked me if I'd like to be a model. I said I'd have to think about it..."

Another one of them. They enter the line for a lark, they sign on for Miss Country pageants for kicks, and then they go on and make lots of money. And on the sidelines, there are thousands of young women peering hopefully into the lenses of hack photographers, lugging their portfolios around to countless magazines and agencies, praying for a chance to strut their stuff.

And here's Lubna Adam who has it handed to her. Here's X who entered Y contest for the experience and not because it was a career choice, oh no!

But again with Lubna, you believe.

Perhaps because she doesn't mind remembering herself as a directionless air-head.

"I was doing commerce at K. C. College, Mumbai, without the slightest idea of what I wanted to do. I was quite happy to drift from day to day without a clear goal. And then along came the Silla sisters and changed my life."

Just like that? No parental opposition to overcome?

"My mother was very cool about it. She didn't kick up a fuss at all. Nor did my dad."

And those long legs began to make modelling history. Along with it came the reputation of being professional, if haughty and aloof.

"I don't know how I got that reputation. Or come to think of it, I do know. I'm shortsighted. I couldn't wear lenses and I wasn't going to wear glasses either. So I couldn't see anybody and so I didn't have to make PC (polite conversation) with anybody. It wasn't something I was good at, or am good at, anyway. If I have something to talk to you about, I'll talk. If there's nothing common between us, I won't. Simple as that..."

A pause and then a shrug,

"I've had corrective surgery (for my eyes) now, so that excuse is gone. But it doesn't matter now."

It doesn't matter because Lubna Adam is no longer a model. Boredom, remember?

"There is this great big ego kick that you get out of the ramp. It's like nothing else, man. Initially, you go, 'All that for me?' and you can't believe it. Then it comes to a point where you know it's for you and you're still up there. Finally, you get to the point where you're bored and you feel like a fraud because someone is paying you money to do things that you don't feel like doing and so you aren't putting your all into it. That's when you know it's time to stop."

Which led to the change-of-career routine and the choreography, right? Again, not a planned decision.

"I used to help Jeannie Nowroji with choreographing her shows and she'd often ask me to help her. Or do it myself. And I'd go, 'You're crazy! Me?' Then someone asked me to choreograph a show in Malaysia. Again my first response was: 'Me?' but my friends talked me into it. 'You have nothing to lose,' they said. 'If it goes badly, don't tell anyone you did it. Come home and sit tight. If it goes well, then there you are.' "

There she was indeed.