*THE MYOPIC ACT*

Not many people get second chances so why me?

“Really man....acting is not my thing !”

If you knew about the time I did make an attempt to act, you’d bet on millions that I wouldn’t agree to act again ....but heaven of heavens I DID!

When I was in eighth, we did a skit. When I say ‘we’ I mean the teacher and her favorite student pals. Ordinary people like me who were just too ordinary , stayed back, looking on with guppy eyes for a role. My role lasted half a second , but to me it was the world...

Reader, if you’re still wondering what it is ........let me just tell you, that until that day I was invisible in my school .. but from that day on, I wished I were invisible ...Well maybe it wasn’t that bad.. apart from the fact that I forgot my half-second dialogue... could actually hear the ‘thud thud’ of my heart.. and all on a sudden .. just wanted to sit on a TOILET!...

Ah well .. that was long ago .. things are different now .. yeah...RIGHT!

From the moment I agreed to my friend , I could actually picture the whole thing happening again, as if in rewind.

I had never heard of Girish Karnad or as a matter of fact his play ‘Hayavadana’. But yeah.. it was interesting. I had never put in so much thought into what I read.. But with this play, it was a philosophical journey.. The play was an allegory of the warring impulses of the mind and the body.. Don’t get the wrong idea .. I got back to earth pretty soon. They said I couldn’t just sit thinking but had to act right away..here comes the tough part..GOD HELP ME..

So there I was, poor poor meek ME, donning the role of the all powerful Bhaghawata, the narrator, the action controller.. the by all and end all of the play. So how on earth did I manage? ..Believe me when I say this .. if you got a major problem of stage fright and are short sighted (not just simply short-sighted ,but short-sighted enough that whenever you’re in the vicinity , your dear friends yap, ‘ Hey here comes ‘ soda glass’!!).. then mate, let me tell you that you are blessed in disguise. When I removed my sodaglasses...er .. spectacles on stage..Voila! I couldn’t see a thing (DUH!) ...and seeing nothing enabled me to be stop being self -conscious.. .. things were different now, because I was no longer afraid...and was actually enjoying the moment...What a pleasure it was to hear them all applaud and find my sweat sweet.

‘Hope’ my friends, ‘hope’ and you’ll get a success formula.....stupid it may be .. you never know.. it might as well work ...