On the stage - Take 1,2....3

The invite was a surprising one for me. I have always been the back stage guy. Or mostly, "beyond-the-stage" guy. Though I have appeared ON the stage many times in school days, they were only for getting the prizes and not to perform any play or dance. On the whole, I have experienced only two times performing ON the stage. So the invititaion to pariticipate in a skit was a very surprising one to me. Add to that, it was for Telugu audience and the few words I know in Telugu are "veluthama" (shall we go) learnt from our car driver; "Batalu" (dresses) from the PG owner in Bangalore; "baavunava" learnt from my friend Viji. And you can add few more words that I picked from my roommates in Charlotte. Now Viswa wants me to perform in a skit infront of a huge telugu audience gathered for Telugu association of Greater Charlotte Area(TAGCA).

The truth is lanuage was not the only problem for me. Consider my only two experiences that I have performed on the stage. The first one was the play I did during my 9th standard in School and second was during the third year in my college days. They didnt make me an overnight star.(I never was a star is another story)

Let me tell about my first experience. It was a fairy tale of a boy and a girl who were left behind in the forest by their father and step mother. Though for few days, they find their way back to home by dropping pebbles to identify the path, one day they would get lost when the boy drops bread crumbs instead of pebbles on the way and were eaten by the crow. Stranded in the dark forest, they stumle upon a witch's house, who feeds the boy very well, but makes the girl to work hard. but it was revealed that the witch's plan is to eat the chubby boy by cooking in the cauldron. The intelligent kids trick the witch to fall into the cauldron and return back to their father who was feeling sad to follow his wife's cruel instructions. And they lived happily ever after. Such a nice story it was and I acted as the father of the kids, and had only the closing dialogue of the play "Children, I am glad you both are safe. Lets live together happily".

If the first experience is not enough to prove my talent, listen to my second experience. I took the challenge in linguistics by acting in a Tamil play in college. Though there are rumors that the only reason I got this role was beause I was the class representative and the drama crew needed me to be with them to get their attendance class, I would say I was picked up specifically for that role(for no good reason). I acted as a Police constable who would get the bribe from Kabali, a chota sized thief hiding behind Dabali, a BADA sized thief and would lie "Sir! Kabali Dabali pinnadi illa sir"(Sir! Kabali is not behind Dabali) to the Police inspetor. That was the only dialogue for me. The worst part is Kabali would rob me when I was talking to the inspector. So I lost the bribe too.

With such lower experiences on the stage, it was really surprising that he asked me if I can act in a skit and added that its a mime and there would be no dialogues at all. When I agreed and made the contract for "Free Dinner", I started imagining the level of my role. Though I did not want to be the Saviour of the world, I just did not want to end up as hen-pecked husband or a constable who gets pickpocketed. To my happiness, Viswa told that I would be coming to the house tired after work and he would be the servant. Wow. I am the master of the house and I have a servant too. That looked interesting. But he broke my heart by saying that I would get drunk and wont notice that it was my servant mimicing infront of me like a mirror. Atleast I was in my proper senses during my previous roles.

As the contract was made already and I did not want to leave the "Free Dinner", we prepared for the skit. The background music was created using Windows Movie maker, Microsoft's lame copy of iMovie in an hour and we practiced only once. Viswa was so confident that I wont be needing more than one trial of the skit. I was so confident that I will make him the scapegoat if things go bad which he didnt know even now because it didnt go bad. Oops. I threw the ending already. Anyway, after little preparation, we went to the function and gave only his name for the skit. I was very careful from the start itself. The time went on and we enjoyed watching the dances and songs by kids. As the time flew fast, the organizer realised that there will be no time for our show. Though I know that the audience would be disappointed not to watch our skit, I was generous and told the organizers to cancel our skit if needed. And if Viswa wasnt there, I would have succeeded in escaping from the skit and would have written a post "How I almost made to the skit!". He persuaded the organizers to make ours the last one of the day and he would not have the "Free dinner" arranged. I really didnt want to leave the "Free dinner". But my words went deaf as we were given the last slot of the show and there was no "Free dinner" for anyone.

However, the show went really well and I was even able to hear some cheers and claps from the crowd. Everything went fine except the scene in which I should see the white hair on the servant's head and think it is mine. I have to cut my hair after that scene. Thats when I realised we did not bring scissors. Viswa was murmuring "White hair" all the time while I skipped the scene not sure how to cut the imaginary white hair without scissors. It was after the show he told that I could have just plucked the hair with my hand. Obviously, I got involved so much that I behaved completely like a drunk not able to think even how to pluck my hair.

How much I wished that I should have given my name when there were full cheers from the crowd especially from the girls and everyone went around Viswa while I stood like a stranger. All because of my smart safety precautions.