When life comes full circle

One of the most exciting part of school life were the annual functions. Boys and girls practiced with enthusiasm for the dances, plays and other activities related to annual function. Students would get special consideration for not attending the lectures of teachers while practicing away. Some students who were not interested in attending lectures would often take advantage of this rule to bunk classes. It was 9th grade the final year where we were allowed to have fun unlimited as the next year was the most important year in everyones life.



I was always interested in acting in theatre as I was involved in making lots of plays in my colony during different functions. There was a play called “Apan doghe bhramchari” (we both are bachelors) which was in making. Our class teacher Mrs. Vibha was involved in all aspects of making of this play. I always dreamt of acting in school play and this was my last chance to do so. On hearing of Mrs. Vibha directing the play I was ecstatic and excited as I thought my dream is soon going to become a reality as Mrs. Vibha favored me a lot and she was the best teacher in my books. Myself and Atul were confident about making in the final list of characters for the play. After the first lecture was over me and Atul went to the hall where the practices for the play were going on. As we waited for Mrs. Vibha to arrive we started observing the play. A guy called Chirag shah was playing the role of father of a bhramachari. He started with his dialogues. Since Chirag was a gujju guy, he wasn’t fluent in the Marathi dialogues. Some guys around used to laugh when he started delivering his dialogues. Me and Atul were confident of replacing 2 or 3 guys in the play as we felt we could do justice to the characters in terms of dialogue delivery, expressions and body language. Mrs. Vibha arrived and we both approached her with our intent of acting in the play. She blatantly refused us saying that the screen testing was already done and characters were already finalized. There was no scope for any place in the play until anyone drops at last minute.

We both were extremely disturbed by this and within a moment Mrs Vibha turned into most hated teacher from the best teacher so far. We often discussed that we both were far better than anyone in the play but we had to move forward. The play was a major hit that annual function and it also got repeated in 10th std as well. I had to move on with bad feeling towards Mrs. Vibha.



Later that year on the eve of Ganesh chaturthi I decided to direct a play called “shaletla ek inspection “(inspection in school). The play was planned to have 7-8 characters on stage. We had 20-22 boys and girls in totality in our colony and all of them wanted to be a part of that play. Me nursing the wounds of not being a part of successful play in school decided to give chance to everyone who wanted to be a part of the play. I modified the play to include 20 - 22 characters. The synopsis of script was such that an inspector comes to school for inspection. A professor takes around the inspector and introduces his class. The inspector starts asking students different questions on history, geography, science, languages, music etc. There was a scene where in the inspector asks a student about history. The students replies by enacting the professor putting tobacco in his palm and rubbing and delivering the dialogue –

Ha aapla Bharat Desh,

Ithun thode Angrez aale,

tyani Bharatala marla marla marla,

tyana chala chala chala,

Shewati aaplya Bharat Deshala Swatantra milala.



This character was played by my neighbor Piraj Sahani. He too being a Punjabi was not fluent in his delivery but the scene looked excellent in the play and we were into splits whenever we saw the scene during practice sessions. All the boys who confirmed and participated initially in the play gave me the much needed boost to make the play bigger and better. During the last stages a boy turned up and asked for a small role in my play. I told that I have almost finalized everyone and there is no space. He further said that he can deliver Pirajs dialogue effectively as he was fluent with Marathi. There was no way I was gonna drop Piraj for this boy as he was one of the first participants of my play and regularly articipated for all the practice sessions. Also the way he delivered Marathi dialogue would have anyone into splits due to his impolised Marathi dialect.



After this moment I recollected the incident of Mrs. Vibha turning me down for her play. I easily related to that situation. That night my hatred for Mrs. Vibha ended. There on I became extremely patient in my approach towards any situations in life. That day Life had come full circle and I learnt an important lesson-



“Don’t hate anyone because of their action. Try to understand the reason behind the action.”