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Friday, June 14, 2013

My name is Febin and I am not an actor

In my opinion there are two kinds of people in this world; ones who know what they want in life and ones who don’t. Some people at some point of their life switch sides to the other category, some stay there forever. I belong to the latter; I don’t have an answer for what I want in life though I have answers for what I don’t want in life. I use the method of elimination to decide what I don’t want in my life. When I struggled with my biology I knew that I didn’t want to be a doctor; when I tried unsuccessfully to tune a song written by myself, I knew that I didn’t want to be an composer. When my mother looked at the innocent face of a fifth grade and said that I sucked big time in singing, I knew that I didn’t want to be a singer. I follow this method of elimination to decide what I don’t want in my life. This post is about my small stint before realizing that I didn’t want to be an actor either.

I was in fifth grade and was for the first time experiencing the phenomenon called crush. Those days I was not that popular in school and my crush was in a different division. School anniversary was nearing and my English teacher was preparing for an English drama and was under the process of casting. The drama was an adaptation of Kalidasan’s Shakunthalam. Her first choice was the first rank holder and second choice the sports champion. I, being not there in vicinity of both spots, was sitting in my science class and thinking about nothing. The topper was studying dance along with his crush for last two years which made him not available for the top job: Dushyandhan’s role. The sports champion had already been given the second best role: Vishwamitra. This made my teacher look for less popular people. The sports champion was given the responsibility of casting. Dushyandhan’s role involved keeping his hand over Shakuntala’s shoulder. Touching a girl was considered to be a taboo by all the boys during that point of time. As the science class progressed Vishwamitra started giving cameo role and started picking his enemies for the role of Dushyandhan. After few people, I finally got the call.

When I entered the room I saw my crush along with many other girls. The fact that I was being watched by my crush made me completely oblivious of what was going on there and I completely forgot about the taboo. English teacher asked me whether I was ready for the audition and I in my half sense nodded. I don’t even remember the teacher asking me the question, but she sure was happy that finally she found one guy who was ready to put his hand on the shoulders of Shakuntala. She asked me to act the scene. I put my hand on the shoulder, only to hear every one laughing and realizing that I have kept my shoulders on my English teacher. I turned back and saw disappointment and disparage on my crush’s face. My English teacher was also furious at me. She scolded me for not listening to her and asked me to enact the scene again. The scene was very simple: put my hands on the Shakuntala’s shoulder and walk for a few feet. There was no dialogue involved and I was so desperate to regain the reputation. There I just finished my first audition and the teacher was happy that I didn’t show any reluctance in breaking the Taboo. I got the part.

The complete drama was in English and I was given a big sheet of paper with my dialogue to be mugged up. The next day was the first day of practice. I mugged up all the dialogue and just after my lunch ran to the practice room. I soon realized that my crush is going to be my mother in law “Menaka” and that Vishwamitra wanted me to suffer while he flirted with my crush. I really don’t remember any of the practice session other than hanging out with the topper who also happens to be my best friend. We both were discussing on how to succeed in flirting with our respective crushes. School annual day was very near and my parents were excited to see their son in limelight. My father with his experience in acting in the cliché dramas that used to happen in churches gave me a lot of advice. The only advice that I remembered from his long lecture is that not to worry if you forget the dialog because someone from behind the curtain will always spell it out for you.

The day had come and I was worried about the whole concept of Green room. My English teacher was happy with my performance during practice session, so I was able to convince her that I will wear the King’s gown over my pants rather than removing the pants and wearing the gown in front of everyone else in the green room. I was the sole lucky guy on that day who didn’t have to strip down in front of everyone (including other unlucky girls) for the makeup man to show his talent on us. I had my first Mickey Mouse moment on that day. (Don’t know what Mickey mouse moment is? Search google with “Da thadiya” and Mickey Mouse as keywords). There were many Mickey Mouses that were playing around there in pink and white background. But I don’t recollect having the Mickey Mouse moment with my crush. Still, the evil me can recollect a few of the other moments exactly.

The drama was about to start and we were all taken near the stage. My crush had started dancing around Vishwamitra on her venture to seduce him. My role was approaching and I was completely nervous. I didn’t want to let my teacher down, more than that I didn’t want to see the disappointment on my crush’s face. I couldn’t recollect the first dialogue that I was supposed to say but I didn’t worry because as per my father, there would be someone who would tell the dialogue from behind and I just needed to repeat it. Soon the scene was all set and I was standing there waiting for the person behind me to tell the dialogue. Nobody uttered any word. The complete stage was in silence. Shakuntala was staring at me. Her maids were looking at me with pity. I turned back searching in vain for the non existing person who was supposed to spell out my dialogue. I didn’t have the strength to look at my teacher’s direction. I directly started with the second dialogue. The completely mugged up Shakuntala couldn’t say her second dialogue without delivering the first dialogue. Though I don’t remember the dialogue the audience was for sure laughing out. I could remember all other dialogue and after the first stutter all other dialogues were rendered with perfection. But by then the damage has been done and I had realized that I don’t want to be an actor any more. Time passed by, the drama got over and I returned back to the green room with a bowed head to avoid the disappointed eyes.

PS: Sure I have added a lot of masala.The original characters please don’t get offended by the post. I am still in touch with Shakuntala. She is now mother of a cute little girl. Vishwamitra was blessed with a cute girl recently and I am sure that Menaka also might have settled down somewhere with her true Vishwamitra. The topper is still my Best friend, and still gives me a call sometime from US to advise me on my new crushes.
PPS: I recently met Bharathan who is the son of Dushyandhan at Kannur Bus stand. He had a beedi on his lips and lot of communism in his head.
There I am taking a break from delivering dialogues in style

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