My amma was a teacher in the same school where I was studying. Being a teacher's son was never easy. The most common torture I was going through was that if there are any activities being conducted in our school, my name was added to to it without my consult even though I was not comfortable taking part in it most of the times. But I was helpless, because whenever I said no, complaint was directly given to my mom by completely exaggerating things by saying your son is not taking part in any of the extra curricular activities and immediately my mom used to scold me without even conducting an investigation!!
But now i realize how it helped to shape up my personality. I was there in the group who used to say prayer in front 1200 students daily, i was also 'included' in many groups like news reading, news writing, school band, school volunteer etc etc...apart from the famous post of CR!! But the other side of being active in so many events is that many times it was leading to some funny unavoidable errors.
The most hilarious and funny things were happening during our school days, due to our lack of preparation and also some completely unavoidable, unexpected events which were happening due to the reasons which got nothing to do with us what so ever!!
In our high school, we got a class teacher who was having a lot of theater experience. It was the time when people were discussing kaveri issue through out the state. So our madam wanted us to do a drama related to kaveri water giving message of peace. The concept that was worked out in script was to start the drama with episode of Durgi killing Mahishaasura, and then relate it to current day happenings. Our mam also some how managed to get a tabla and keyborad artists to give it a realistic touch, apart from including the concepts of malnutrition, importance of nature etc in the drama.
So after every thing got finalized, i got an opportunity to do triple acting (3 different roles) in that drama! First I have to wear a dress of rakshasa and dance with fellow rakshasas and then come in the form of vegetable!, and finally a filmy like appearance in the climax scence, with the role of 'peace maker'! But the most difficult role was to maintain discipline in the whole auditorium as i was the CR, and almost all the students of our class took part in the drama.
Since the beginning of the practice, as there were number of people involved in it, there was something new added to the concept on regular basis and the whole concept was completely different from what we started!! What I got to know on the day of final performance was that my mam was writing new dialogues for me for the climax and i should read it out. But there was no time for practice and I dared to read it up the whole thing at the time of the performance! (my character allowed me to read out it by keeping the script in hand).
The day began with some dramatic instances ( which is a different story altogether!). As usual our school day was at national college auditorium. As we were seniors, our performance was placed at last. And I was a bit tensed as I should to change the costumes 3 times within 30 minutes.
After hours of waiting, it was time for our drama. Since it started to rain, though it was late night the auditorium was jam packed. The drama began, with full josh. It was easy for me to do the first role, as it was rakshasa's dance, the steps were not so difficult. After that i came back and changed the dress and was waiting in the side wings. Apart from me there were 20 more people waiting in the side wings. As part of the drama, we were required to exhibit different types of fruits. So for that our mam had purchased fruits and also we had prepared some posters containing the pictures of fruits. We had kept those with us in side wings, but long hours of waiting had made us hungry and we began to eat fruits!! We sincerely tried to leave something for the drama, but at the time of making appearance to the stage we were left only with the posters! Since I was the CR, i had to take moral responsibility for that, so i was thinking about the reasons which i have to give to my mam!
Everything went fine till now. But after i did my 2nd role and came back, i had to change the costume again and had to wear a garland of skulls!!, But we had only one such garland for both me as well for the character of mahishasura! Since there was gap between both the performance we thought we could manage with just one. But things did not worked out as planned. I changed the costume and was waiting for the garland in the green room.My mam came there and said-
"You go there and stand, we will reach you the script of dialouges at the right time''
"Yes mam"
"Now what are you doing here, its time for you to go to centre stage"
"Im waiting for that garland of skulls, which is with mahishasura who is performing at the stage, who was supposed to be here by this time!"
Suddenly a guy came running to the green room and said
"mam, mahishasura's lungi came off while he is performing!"
Mam asked "Where is he now"
"Still dancing on stage!"
We rushed out of the green room and came near the side wings. Mahishasura's lungi was on ground!, but his dignity was protected by the pant he was wearing. His act was to dance there for 2 minutes and come back, but since he had unexpected wardrobe malfunction, he did not know what to do next and hence kept on dancing on the stage by glancing towards us for help!
The tabala and piano artsists who were giving music thought it was part of the drama and increased their beats!! There were several other characters on the stage who were dancing and all were in confused mood, as the background music was supposed to end by now marking their exist from the stage. Time was running out and we had to come to some quick decision. As musicians were on the other side of the stage, so one guy was sent out to them to tell to stop the music. My mam made an idea and told me that she will talk with the lighting technicians to give the effect of dim and dip, and you enter the stage by taking that garland from Mahishasura when he comes out of the stage.
Soon the music was stopped, and i entered the stage by one end and the foolish mahishasura went off the stage from other end!! Since there was dim and dip lighting I went after him running quickly and reached the other end of the stage where i shouted at him to give garland and somebody gave it to me finally! But when i came back to the stage, there was proper lighting and i realized that my spectacles had fallen off somewhere in the stage during that confusion. There were more people on stage at that time enacting some scenes, some were dancing at one corner. My role was a passer by citizen, who should be walking wearing that garland. So i took the opportunity to search for my spectacles then i suddenly realised in bright light that i was wearing a garland of vegetables instead of skulls!! And i thought of going out of the stage to exchange it, and looked at the side wings where i saw my friend ( who was supposed to enter the stage to give me the script of dialogues) and my mam who were dancing!
I was surprised at first to see them dance, but then realised that they were encouraging the fellow dancers who were performing at the stage! Then i thought of going towards them slowly, but to my bad luck the drama of the other people got over and it was my time to act! But luckily i got my specs back, it was with my friend who took it when it fell on the stage. wearing the specs i started my part of acting and when it came to the climax part i saw towards side wings for the script, where my friend was holding it and instead of he coming in, he was expecting me to come there! But it was too late to take any decisions on that so i decided to talk with own words and i did that effectively as my kannada was good. I remember that i spoke something about vision, viewpoint etc etc since most of the people saw me wearing the spectacles at the center of the stage, they thought that all these were part of drama and gave a huge applause!
After that, i met my mam who told me
''It came out well at the end. Who taught you those dialogues?''
''Even i do not know. It just happened!''
''idiots who told you to eat all the fruits??Why did you let that happen''
''I do not know even that. It just happened!''
(Later when i asked my friend why he did not gave me the script, he told me that he and mam were signalling me to come out and exchange the garland and take the script, but i did not respond to them. Then i realised that they were not dancing at side wings, but giving signals to me to come out. But since i was not wearing my specs and due to the lighting i thought that they were dancing!!)
But now i realize how it helped to shape up my personality. I was there in the group who used to say prayer in front 1200 students daily, i was also 'included' in many groups like news reading, news writing, school band, school volunteer etc etc...apart from the famous post of CR!! But the other side of being active in so many events is that many times it was leading to some funny unavoidable errors.
The most hilarious and funny things were happening during our school days, due to our lack of preparation and also some completely unavoidable, unexpected events which were happening due to the reasons which got nothing to do with us what so ever!!
In our high school, we got a class teacher who was having a lot of theater experience. It was the time when people were discussing kaveri issue through out the state. So our madam wanted us to do a drama related to kaveri water giving message of peace. The concept that was worked out in script was to start the drama with episode of Durgi killing Mahishaasura, and then relate it to current day happenings. Our mam also some how managed to get a tabla and keyborad artists to give it a realistic touch, apart from including the concepts of malnutrition, importance of nature etc in the drama.
So after every thing got finalized, i got an opportunity to do triple acting (3 different roles) in that drama! First I have to wear a dress of rakshasa and dance with fellow rakshasas and then come in the form of vegetable!, and finally a filmy like appearance in the climax scence, with the role of 'peace maker'! But the most difficult role was to maintain discipline in the whole auditorium as i was the CR, and almost all the students of our class took part in the drama.
Since the beginning of the practice, as there were number of people involved in it, there was something new added to the concept on regular basis and the whole concept was completely different from what we started!! What I got to know on the day of final performance was that my mam was writing new dialogues for me for the climax and i should read it out. But there was no time for practice and I dared to read it up the whole thing at the time of the performance! (my character allowed me to read out it by keeping the script in hand).
The day began with some dramatic instances ( which is a different story altogether!). As usual our school day was at national college auditorium. As we were seniors, our performance was placed at last. And I was a bit tensed as I should to change the costumes 3 times within 30 minutes.
After hours of waiting, it was time for our drama. Since it started to rain, though it was late night the auditorium was jam packed. The drama began, with full josh. It was easy for me to do the first role, as it was rakshasa's dance, the steps were not so difficult. After that i came back and changed the dress and was waiting in the side wings. Apart from me there were 20 more people waiting in the side wings. As part of the drama, we were required to exhibit different types of fruits. So for that our mam had purchased fruits and also we had prepared some posters containing the pictures of fruits. We had kept those with us in side wings, but long hours of waiting had made us hungry and we began to eat fruits!! We sincerely tried to leave something for the drama, but at the time of making appearance to the stage we were left only with the posters! Since I was the CR, i had to take moral responsibility for that, so i was thinking about the reasons which i have to give to my mam!
Everything went fine till now. But after i did my 2nd role and came back, i had to change the costume again and had to wear a garland of skulls!!, But we had only one such garland for both me as well for the character of mahishasura! Since there was gap between both the performance we thought we could manage with just one. But things did not worked out as planned. I changed the costume and was waiting for the garland in the green room.My mam came there and said-
"You go there and stand, we will reach you the script of dialouges at the right time''
"Yes mam"
"Now what are you doing here, its time for you to go to centre stage"
"Im waiting for that garland of skulls, which is with mahishasura who is performing at the stage, who was supposed to be here by this time!"
Suddenly a guy came running to the green room and said
"mam, mahishasura's lungi came off while he is performing!"
Mam asked "Where is he now"
"Still dancing on stage!"
We rushed out of the green room and came near the side wings. Mahishasura's lungi was on ground!, but his dignity was protected by the pant he was wearing. His act was to dance there for 2 minutes and come back, but since he had unexpected wardrobe malfunction, he did not know what to do next and hence kept on dancing on the stage by glancing towards us for help!
The tabala and piano artsists who were giving music thought it was part of the drama and increased their beats!! There were several other characters on the stage who were dancing and all were in confused mood, as the background music was supposed to end by now marking their exist from the stage. Time was running out and we had to come to some quick decision. As musicians were on the other side of the stage, so one guy was sent out to them to tell to stop the music. My mam made an idea and told me that she will talk with the lighting technicians to give the effect of dim and dip, and you enter the stage by taking that garland from Mahishasura when he comes out of the stage.
Soon the music was stopped, and i entered the stage by one end and the foolish mahishasura went off the stage from other end!! Since there was dim and dip lighting I went after him running quickly and reached the other end of the stage where i shouted at him to give garland and somebody gave it to me finally! But when i came back to the stage, there was proper lighting and i realized that my spectacles had fallen off somewhere in the stage during that confusion. There were more people on stage at that time enacting some scenes, some were dancing at one corner. My role was a passer by citizen, who should be walking wearing that garland. So i took the opportunity to search for my spectacles then i suddenly realised in bright light that i was wearing a garland of vegetables instead of skulls!! And i thought of going out of the stage to exchange it, and looked at the side wings where i saw my friend ( who was supposed to enter the stage to give me the script of dialogues) and my mam who were dancing!
I was surprised at first to see them dance, but then realised that they were encouraging the fellow dancers who were performing at the stage! Then i thought of going towards them slowly, but to my bad luck the drama of the other people got over and it was my time to act! But luckily i got my specs back, it was with my friend who took it when it fell on the stage. wearing the specs i started my part of acting and when it came to the climax part i saw towards side wings for the script, where my friend was holding it and instead of he coming in, he was expecting me to come there! But it was too late to take any decisions on that so i decided to talk with own words and i did that effectively as my kannada was good. I remember that i spoke something about vision, viewpoint etc etc since most of the people saw me wearing the spectacles at the center of the stage, they thought that all these were part of drama and gave a huge applause!
After that, i met my mam who told me
''It came out well at the end. Who taught you those dialogues?''
''Even i do not know. It just happened!''
''idiots who told you to eat all the fruits??Why did you let that happen''
''I do not know even that. It just happened!''
(Later when i asked my friend why he did not gave me the script, he told me that he and mam were signalling me to come out and exchange the garland and take the script, but i did not respond to them. Then i realised that they were not dancing at side wings, but giving signals to me to come out. But since i was not wearing my specs and due to the lighting i thought that they were dancing!!)
