Rehearsals

The acting skills had got rusty in the past two years. The early morning rehearsals are helping me remove the rust and also get into shape with the "new and improved" warm up. Soon, you will see Sunny shining again.

Fluid sculpture - "Watching Bourne Identity for umpteenth time!"

Connecting with audience

On 12th May we did a Playback performance at Bosco Mane, a Non-Governmental Organization committed to helping street children stay off from the street. When I walked into the hall, I was frustrated with myself because I was late and thanks to Bangalore traffic I was tired too.

An hour later after the performance, it was completely different. The energy and enthusiasm of the boys, their stories that exuded strength and courage took me to a different high.

In Playback, one of audience members will come and narrate an incident from their life and we enact it on the spot. A boy narrated how and why he ran away from his home and worked at odd places, before he landed in this NGO. After the performance, the boy came to us and told "When you performed my story, I cried". I was moved by what he said. I did not know what to say. I patted on his back. He left and joined his friends to share a laugh.

We had connected with him.

I am back!

It’s been two years since I did anything related to theatre. And last month everything seemed to fall in place and after a long time I was part of a Playback performance. I was yearning for more. And as told in The Alchemist - “If you have the burning desire to achieve something, the whole world will conspire with you in achieving it”.

Then came the Theatre Inc. project from Script People’s theatre and I enrolled. The rehearsals started from Tuesday. It feels so great to get back and do what I love to do the most – theatre.

Peace ruffled!

The temple bells, the pervasive aroma of camphor and incense sticks, and the melodious lullaby being recited for Lord Krishna welcomed us, as we entered the temple arena of Sri Krishna Temple in Udupi.

We joined the long queue. As we moved, suddenly a group of people rushed in from back, all clad in saffron, seemed like a bunch of VIPs. The queue ahead of me was stopped and a special entry was given to them. I don't know what went inside me, I asked the guard in a raised voice about breaking the queue. We waited nevertheless, but it seemed like an endless wait with these VIPs not moving at all after their darshana (glimpse of the Lord).

Few more people joined me and then it seemed as though I didn't have any control on my reaction. I raised my voice higher and was shouting at this guard. My raised voice fell on deaf ears. A loud temple bell in the background brought me back to normal self.

The queue moved and as I was having the darshana, a priest appeared from nowhere and was shouting at the people to move fast. I asked him, "Where were you when VIPs were here?" He didn't have an answer.

Although I felt good that I asked a fitting question to the priest, as I walked back to the hotel, the scene kept coming back. Did I do the right thing by shouting at the guard? Did I achieve anything by losing my temper? Did my shout will bring about any change or made any difference to anyone? Will those VIPs stop cutting through the queue in the future?

Nope. Peace at the temple ruffled for a moment.

Me, Mr. Murphy and the city of pearls

If anything can go wrong, it will. Most of you would have heard about this Murphy’s Law. Normally I don’t agree with Murphy's laws, but sometimes I am forced to. What unfolds now is one such incident that took place recently where Murphy had his way.

The flight to the city of pearls (for the less informed, it is Hyderabad, India) was smooth and we later checked in to a hotel. The hotel was fine but due to some problems we checked out and checked into another hotel and this one was a three-star hotel. The lobby was beautiful and I thought I am going to have a wonderful stay (I didn’t hear Murphy laughing in the background). We finished the campus interviews and I decided to stay back for couple of days to explore the city of pearls and also catch up with my friend.

Being a movie buff, something that I did not want to miss was a visit to Ramoji Film City. I checked with hotel staff and they said the bus leaves in the morning at nine near the hotel. All excited, I went to bed and got up at six. All seemed well until now.

After a sip of coffee, I went to shower and to my surprise it was not working!!! Well, that was the last thing I expected in a three-star hotel. I could hear Murphy laughing! I had to catch the bus at nine and I was getting late. I called up housekeeping and they sent a person who could not do much about the problem. It was more like “he came, he saw and he went away”. I called the reception and asked them to shift me to a new room right away. The hotel guys badly wanted to fix the problem. May be they wanted to prove something. After fifteen minutes of impatient wait, a plumber came in and he temporarily fixed the problem. Finally they decided to provide me a new room.

I could catch the bus on time. Ramoji Film city is one of the famous tourist destination and also Guinness record holder for largest film city spanning 1600 acres. I went through various tours and at end of day little tired, I felt that it was not a good idea to visit the film city all by myself. It would have been more fun with a group.

I came back to hotel and they had shifted my luggage to a new room. I tried to open the room and nope! It ain’t supporting me. The electronic lock looked quite angry with me and was generating beeps in various frequencies. The anger was passed on to me and I went straight to the reception and had a short discussion with receptionist at higher decibel level.

Well, few minutes later everything was fine and as I entered the room, I thought nothing possibly could go wrong now. I first checked the shower and hey it was working quite fine. And they had put up a snack bar in the room that looked quite yummy and inviting. The prices kept me away though. A housekeeping guy walked in with dry-cleaned clothes and then without a word took away all those snacks as if it was meant for him. For some reason, I didn’t ask him anything and thought, “May be it was not meant for my room”.

Next morning I woke up, had a shower and I visited Birla temple. It is a very beautiful temple located on a hillock. I enjoyed a good view of the city. I had the darshan and called my friend. We then drove to the IT city and while coming back we stopped by a spa, called Latitude and had a rejuvenating massage. We were quite hungry after the massage, so we headed straight to Kakatiya’s and had a relaxed lunch. I came back to the hotel at around four. This was probably the best part of my stay at Hyderabad.

I informed reception that I will check out in an hour and they showed me dry-clean bill and I wondered why there are three digits in total when I was expecting two. The reason was simple, they had billed twice. I tried explaining the error with receptionist and when nothing much was understood by him, another short discussion followed at varying decibel levels. The receptionist understood.

I went near my room and it was already open. Oh no!! Burglary? Nope, it was the snack bar in-charge who was checking on snacks. He had a shocked look on this face and looked as though he wanted to ask me - “How on earth you finished all the snacks kept there without any traces of wrappers, Sir?” I immediately told him about the snacks and housekeeping boy. The person in-charge did not seem to buy it. He left the room wondering about the snack and its whereabouts. At this point, I had made a conclusion about this “three-star” hotel - never come back to this hotel and spread the message.

I reached airport and was waiting in the lounge. Away from the hotel, where Murphy had his way, waiting to board the airline that claims flying models, In-flight entertainment and great food, I told myself, “Nothing can go wrong now.” I normally prefer an aisle seat, but this time I thought of having aerial look of “namma bengalooru” (our Bangalore) and asked for a window seat. I felt as though Murphy was laughing again. I turned around and saw nobody.

I boarded the flight with a warm welcome from the flying models. Instructions were played out and then there was chairman’s message on the video screen. And, I was all excited to enjoy the return journey with some song, music and the works. The person on my left was watching some news channel and lady further away was watching a TV show. I put on the headphones, and tried to switch channels. I tried, tried and tried in vain and my TV screen remained the same. It was plotting which way the plane is heading with zooming in and zooming out at frequent intervals. I wonder who on earth would be curious enough to watch this channel on a one-hour flight. Especially, when there are so many channels one can watch and listen.

I tried again, removed the headphone, put it again etc. and finally it dawned on me that the system in my seat isn’t working. Hmmm, nothing can go wrong now. Right? I could see Mr. Murphy dancing on my screen. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and counted from 100 to 1.

Reached Bangalore and initially I had planned to take an auto, but thought I deserve a peaceful drive back home. I booked a taxi with special instruction that it has to be an Indica and not a Maruti van. I got the receipt, went out and waited for the vehicle. Couple of minutes later, it seemed as though I heard Murphy laughing again and I see my driver in a Maruti van. Not again !!! I get back, some higher decibel talks at the counter and got my slip for an Indica. Murphy did not seem to bother on my way back home. Maybe he found someone else :-) I enjoyed the drive back home.

It’s not my cup of tea!

Flashback mid-2002 and picture this: A hall packed with around 1000 odd people. Lights go dimmer as screens go up and people stop murmuring. The hall is filled with deep silence for a few moments and then I hear a soothing piece of violin. As the light gets bright, narration begins – “A Fiddler on the roof….sounds crazy!! But, here in a village of Anatevka, you might say, everyone is a fiddler on the roof….” and music picks up and reaches a crescendo with chorus singing “Tradition…Tradition…”. Yes, it was the play “Fiddler on the roof” being enacted at Chowdaiah. And there, in the fourth row from the front and at the fifth seat was one person, watching the play awe inspired by those expressions, spellbound by the intonation of the speech and the grandeur of the background music and the stage. Yes, it was me watching a play after a very long time.

As I drove back home, a thought blossomed in my heart. How wonderful would it be to act and make people laugh or cry or just make their day? Can I take a step from that “fourth row fifth seat” to the centre stage? I kept thinking. Few minutes later, I thought may be “It’s not my cup of tea!!” I reached home and left my thoughts where it originated.

Weeks passed and I started watching more plays (If not act, let me at least watch them) and started enjoying them. And whenever the thought of acting came back, I thought may be “It’s not my cup of tea!!” Couple of months later, I started searching on the web for some theatre groups. I thought of attending some theatre workshops to put my thoughts into action.

Although I found many theatre groups, none offered workshops at that time except for one group called “The Script”. And the theatre form was called “Playback theatre”. Hmmm….interesting name!! I mailed them and they replied by asking me to attend a performance to get an idea about this form of theatre. I went through their website and realized that it was not a conventional theatre form. It was different and it excited me. But it requires impromptu skills!!! I doubted whether I can do stuff on the spot!! I attended a playback performance and then I was damn sure that “It’s not my cup of tea!!” Although my perception changed a little when I spoke to the actors, there was this doubt at the back of my mind. Couple of days later I signed up for the workshop.

Playback Theatre is an instinctive form of theatre that uses audience’s real life incidents to be enacted without any prior preparation. This theatre is solely dependant on actor’s creativity and instinctive presentation of a story. Founded by an American couple Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas in 1975 in New York, this theatre form has it's footprint in 25 countries around the globe.

February 2003 – A small cozy room filled with around 40 people. As six actors clad in black tees and blue jeans walked up and took their position, the audience looked curious. The host asked the audience what they expect from this performance today. The actors came one by one and “played back” the emotions shared by the audience. The show went for an hour and as the performance came to an end, there was a roaring applause. And I marked that moment in my life when I crossed the line and took the centre stage.

I had my cup of tea.

Stories, stories and stories all the way

When I was doing theatre some time back, I started looking at life from a new perspective. Life is a potpourri of stories. Some last for as less as a minute and some goes on for months. Its quite interesting that so many are going on in parallel !!

All these stories (or incidents, whichever you prefer) has some emotion associated with it. Some made me happy, some sad, some resulted in introspection, and some even brought out the evil in me. The future awaits to unfold many more. All I can say is, it had been and will be a Medley of sorts.

Thanks for visiting and if what I scribble here interests you, keep coming back. Keep smiling :-)