It was another boring, dull day at MESKK PUcollege. The specialty was that there was a pin-drop silence through out the college. This was mainly because the 1st test was going on for us, 1st PUC students and my classmates were indeed very serious about that.
But with me it was a different thing altogether. I was more disinterested than serious. From the time I had joined MESKK, I had been watching how all my peers were concentrating only on studies and I had been loathing them a lot. I was always thinking that the college life will be better than the protected school life we normally have but I got to know that things were worse at MESKK PU College. Moreover none of my classmates in school had joined there which added to the boredom. I was all alone and had to make new friends which obviously would take time.
That day, when we were sitting in the exam hall, suddenly a circular came to the class. I initially didn’t listen to that as I thought this was another boring class timetable which was about to change or the next test timetable. To my dismay, I noticed that the nerds of my class also were not paying attention to that circular. Suddenly I wanted to listen to that as I believed there was something in that for me. That circular was about a theatre workshop which was about to happen in the Dasara holidays which followed the test. I was very excited about this circular and probably the first person in the whole class to register. After this, there was no looking back for me and my wonderful journey of being a thespian.
Acting was not something new to me. I had been in some small plays in my school and many people had already appreciated my talent in acting. Even today I believe that if I have something unique in me then this talent is that. I am able to differentiate myself with rest of the world only because of my interest in Acting.
I could not wait for my tests to get over and join the workshop. Eventually the D-Day arrived and the class started. This was the day when I met my mentor and director, Mr. Naresh Mayya. He was the director for the whole team and later my mentor and the person who inspired me also. The first day, there were around 30 students and we were all new to each other except for couple of people who knew each other. It was a very boring day as most of the day Mayya sir was lecturing us all and I was again losing interest as I needed some action and not another lecture. But I never knew this particular workshop would change my whole life...
By the time we completed two weeks at the workshop, there were only around 20 people. And, later some 15 people from the music group joined us. During this workshop, I got to know that I was interested in acting and I enjoyed every moment of it. More than that people who were watching also were enjoying which came as a motivation for me.
The end product of the workshop was a play in which we all enacted and with this, we had to participate in a state level competition where the degree and pu colleges from all over Karnataka participated. This was an issue of prestige for the college as there was a Rolling Shield to be won.
We decided (rather Mayya sir decided) to enact a kannada version of Kalidasa’s Malavikagni Mithra which was called as “Vidisheya Vidushaka”. By this time I was recognized in the team and hence was selected to do the Vidushaka’s role. This was ofcourse very challenging as apart from Agnimithra, who was the protagonist, Vidushaka was the other main character. It infact revolved around how Vidushaka controlled the whole plot. I was very happy with the role and tried to give my best performance everytime we staged it. I got very good reviews and everyone who watched the play appreciated my acting which was again very inspiring to me. By this time, my acting was liked by most of the prominent people of my college including Mr.Sheshadri Iyengar, Trustee Mrs. Vimla Rangachar , etc….Suddenly after our first show I had become a well known person in my college and everyone started recognizing me which kind of gave me a celebrity status in my college.
The darker side of this was also there as most of my classmates who were nerds started looking down on me as I was not performing very well in my Academics and I had to befriend with the Bad Elements of The College without any option. All these things kept me away from the class most of the times. Another thing was my lecturers knew me well and they started bothering me about academics on which I had already lost interest.
But I was not too worried about all those side effects as my Acting career was thriving and I was becoming more famous daily. Mr. Mayya also experimented a lot with my character in every show and I started getting very good reviews and I also started knowing more people like Mr.Raghunandan who were from NSD and very prominent in Indian Theatre. I had almost decided to quit studies and join NSD and make a career out of acting.
Finally, the competition happened and we performed at Ravindra Kalakshetra which was like a dream come true. The play was excellent and I won the prestigious best Supproting Role award. This was given only to 3 people from the whole of Karnataka. My college also won the Rolling Shield. Our team performed many times after the competition and we were also selected for a festival conducted by NSD which we never did because we had to travel to Delhi and most of the people in the team did not agree.
With this, my 1st year Theatricals came to an end and I came to know that my parents were completely against my decision of taking up acting as a profession and so even I concentrated more on studies and 2nd PUC board exams and decided not to join the workshop in the next academic year.
No comments:
Post a Comment