FROM STAGES TO STARDOM

We all have friends. Who is there in this world without a friend? Everyone has. My friends are gems that shine with a sparkling glow. We will get their radiance if we just go near them. Once I got a friend, who took me completely into her own charge.

There was a time when I struggled a lot to overcome an initiation problem. I had a very bad habit of taking leave on the very first day of the academic year. Today I regret it. Usually, the first day will be a day fixed for the self-introduction or rather I would call it ‘the ragging day’.

The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else.  It was my first day in the college. As far as I am concerned, a phase of big change. That is a shift directly from school to college. I joined for a pre degree course. As I said before, it was my first day in the college. However, for all others it was the second day. I had skipped the first day, which the seniors set as the ragging day. I saw a crowded classroom. As I entered the room, it was all noisy. There was a girl with me, whom I met in the bus. She went straight to a bench where she was welcomed by a group of smart friends. I searched for a seat, but couldn’t find any. I was standing in the middle of the classroom, like a lonely post in a big field. No one was bothered. For a moment, I felt a cold chill. I thought, ‘Why do I feel like this? Why am I still struggling with this initiation problem? It’s terrible. I really want to overcome this.’ Just then, someone caught me. I turned back and saw a girl. She told her benchmates to move a little and asked me to sit down, even though there was no space on that bench.

I was wrong because I thought, ‘No one bothered’. But there was one, who saw me and understood me. That day I got my friend, my true friend. Friendship is not about who you know the longest. It is about someone who comes and never leaves you alone, when you needed someone the most.

From that day on, we were together. In every class, she took me to the front bench. My friend said, ‘There are many advantages of sitting in the front bench; one thing is that we can listen to the teacher very well; and understand the facts clearly. Moreover, we can involve in that class actively.’ When I thought, I felt what she said was true. In the combination classes, that is the language class or general English class, there would be a lot of students, that means students from other streams also came along with us. Even in such classes we would be the first benchers.

Slowly I started to realise that the person who is with me is not an ordinary girl. Her presence itself was enough to make every moment jovial. We would love to be with such people. I was silent. But she made me talkative. Time would pass with jokes and laughter. We laughed and laughed. I learnt many things from her, some of which I proudly follow even today. One day, my friend asked me, ‘Why did you buy all these books from the bookstore?’ I said, ‘Oh! I bought all the books from the store on the day of admission itself, the thick Accountancy book, the big Business studies book, everything.’ She said, ‘I got all my books from the seniors.’ Then she turned some of the pages and showed me, ‘see these important points and notes written in this book. They are lecture notes taken down by our seniors during the class. It will help us a lot to understand the topic. We can see this almost in every page. Again, see these lines written at the end of the page. They are the explanation of the above lines. We won’t get these things from a new book.’ I listened to her with great interest. She said something, which I had never thought of. Those wonderful ideas changed my whole perspective. Till that day I was font of new books and enjoyed the smell of newly printed books. But now I like an old book which has a lot more to say than the printed matter. The next year, I too got books from my seniors. And today, I am proud to say that my children are learning from their senior’s books.

When we saw the college library, we felt so privileged. It was a grand library with cupboards and cupboards of books. We would love to spend time over there. It was a period when we eagerly devoured the Enid Blyton series like, ‘Famous five’, ‘Secret Seven’ and many others with great enthusiasm. My friend showed me the fade yellow colour of the old books and would tell me, ‘I love this. These are some features, which I like in these books.’ I saw how satisfied she was while turning those pages. When everyone runs after new things, a few embraces old things and take it to their heart. It’s true, the simplest treasures are those that resist the rush of the world.

Slowly, we started to enjoy the fun in the college. Everyday there would be one or other programme in the auditorium during the lunch break. We would rush there after having our lunch, in order not to miss it. We would sit there and watch the charming performances of our seniors. In one of the performances, our faces were brightened with blaze. We could even feel the heat like that of a burning fire. It was not only the heat of the purgation or catharsis, which the spectator experience, while witnessing the tragedy, but also that of real flame.  Moreover, we were sitting in the front row. Our seniors had set fire on the stage as part of the performance.  There was a pit infront of the stage, which the spectators could not see. They set the fire there. The audience would experience the effect of the real fire. We were witnessing all these for the first time.  We wondered, ‘How skillfully they employed the stage techniques to give us a unique feel!’ We sat there with our eyes widened with amazement. Never did we imagine that one day, we would be there on that stage to mesmerize everyone.

She always showed an enthusiastic mind to learn everything. At last, the fine arts day came. She enrolled my name for singing competition. I asked her, ‘why did you give my name? I have no skill in singing.’ She said with an encouraging smile, ‘Don’t worry. I am also there. I have given your name in drawing competition too. For drama and dance, we had to join, but there are some procedures. Wait, we will do that later.’ Saying this my friend patted me at my back encouragingly with a smile. Hearing all these I sat there overwhelmed.

She understood my predicament. So to encourage me further, she said, ‘Do you know once I was thrown out of the singing group. That was in my catechism class. Sister asked me to stand back, hearing my voice.’ Then I thought there was no doubt, why I felt a kindred spirit when I first saw my friend. We were same in many things.  With great interest she said, ‘Still I am participating. Then, why can’t you? We have to participate in all the competitions.’

First was the drawing competition. Announcement came, ‘All the participants of the drawing competition should assemble in the seminar hall, immediately after this bell.’ The bell rang and we ran to the seminar hall. On the way my friend asked me, ’Do you know why I gave your name for this?’ Then she said with a serious face, ‘I know you are a good artist and I am sure you will definitely shine in this.’ Here, what my friend meant was that everywhere in the class; on my books, on my friend’s notebooks, on all birthday cards, and even at the corners of the black board, one could see my mickey mouses.

One thing we knew very late was that for every bad performance our house would get five negative marks. When the competitions were announced, all the students of the college were divided into five or six houses. The houses were given wonderful names like buttercups, marigolds, bluebells, and primroses. We thought, what would happen to our buttercups. In our journey from one competition to other, we earned a lot of negative marks for the house. If the house leaders knew about this, they would throw us out of the group.

Next in the order was group song. They called us for selection. This time we were selected. But on one condition. Only lip movement was allowed. That means no sound should come out. They allowed us to stand at both ends.  After that it was a rush to arrange the dress as per the dress code. We didn’t stop with all these. We took part in many items, both offstage and onstage. Each one is a different experience for me. It gave me confidence and helped me to grow. I got a new strength to face any situation. As my friend says, it’s not about winning, it’s about taking part. Moreover, we made many good friends from there.

Once a nun came to our class. She was a student from our combination class. It is so cute to see a small girl like her in a nun’s attire. She called us and we followed her without knowing what would come next. What she said was the last thing we expected to hear from her. We should perform a magic show. We said ‘No’. Then she said, ‘See, only you can do this. I will teach you two tricks. You can show that. It’s simple.’ But, we were worried. I asked her, ‘Will it work?’ Then she said, 'The moment you two get on to the stage, students will start laughing. That is enough.’ We were shocked by this remark, that too from a nun. We looked at each other with a hushed smile.   

It was in a big classroom. More than a hundred students were there. All the students and teachers of the English department were present. Especially, our seniors were there at the very front. They were as if they got two little mice for them to play with, and in a very happy mood. Whatever we said, they would say the opposite. The teachers were seated at the left corner of the class. Anyway, we started our magic show. That nun had given us a big hat and a handkerchief. Those two were our props. The first one was a vanishing trick. Vanishing the handkerchief. Our plan was like this. We would start by waving the handkerchief at the audience and keep it on the table. Then we would place the hat over it. Next, we would pull the hat dragging the handkerchief along with it, so that it would fall down. No one would see. Then we come to the front and show them that there is no handkerchief inside the hat. It will vanish. Then everyone claps. We did like that. But no claps came. Instead, we heard big laughter. What the nun said was right. ‘Laughter’ was our ultimate aim. Everyone saw the handkerchief except us. It was at my foot. The laughter turned into big shouts. We saw that only those seniors sitting in the front row were interested in our act. All others were engaged in different business. Most of them were chattering away, laughing wildly with their friends.  Some others were completing their pending notes, not at all concerned about all this commotion. Then we turned to the teachers. They had completely ignored us. They were chitchatting and enjoying the company of their colleagues as if they got some free period. What a tragedy! Whatever happens ‘the show must go on’. We turned back and said, ‘Now, we will show another magic…’ Before we hardly complete it, they said ‘NO’. Then my friend said in a very determined voice, ‘We will definitely show this. Only then we will leave.’ The next magic came. After that the shouts grew bigger. We saw some students crumpling papers in their hands. May be to throw at us. We bowed our heads respectfully and left. Behind us we could here big sounds. We won’t find this kind of commotion even in the Shakespearian stage, we thought. We took everything as flowers of appreciation.

There was one thing in which we really excelled. It was drama. That was when we came to the degree class, where we got a very enthusiastic group of friends. Each one of our classmates was talented. We played drama for the fine arts competition as well as for the Poet Artist Day. Those were unforgettable memories. We played in ‘The Dear Departed’, which is a one-act play. We took roles in Charles Dickins’ ‘Christmas Carol’ and Alexander Dumas’ ‘The Three Musketeers.’ The costume was excellent. We carried swords in our scabbards. Afterwards we were called the musketeers.

We even played a Malayalam drama. I cannot stop laughing when I think about that day, when one of us forgot the dialogue on stage and the other actor somehow managed to change her dialogue to save the drama. And in the climax scene we too put fire on stage, surprising all the spectators.

We even performed mime and tableau. But the one thing which gave us stardom was a musical skit which we performed upon my friends wish. It was a humourous skit. We all sat together to make the script. My friend’s hand started to move down her imaginary beard. This always comes when she thinks. And it always makes me laugh. The script, dialogue and everything came from my friend’s brain. In the skit, we had added songs and we had to act according to the situation. And I was given to act the role of Jayan, the veteran Malayalam actor. It was a time when everyone celebrated the mannerisms of Jayan in television shows, in stages, everywhere. I was not ready. But they said, ‘You should do this.’ Actually, I didn’t know how to do. One of my friends came forward to help me. She was doing very nicely. I said, ‘You are good. Why can’t you do this?’ She said, ‘I can’t. I will teach you. See, it will come nicely only if you do.’ My friend did the verbal comedy along with one of my very dear friends. They did their part well. As a result, there was a lot of laughter from the audience. The skit was already a success. My role was about to come. Though I did many other roles on the stage, I was very reluctant to do this. I was little shy to do a part like that. The song came. My female counterparts were all ready. I was in real trouble. Before I could think any further, one of my friends pushed me on to the stage. I was about to fall but quickly regained my posture and did the rest. The laughter from the audience doubled. It came out nicely. Because the actor had to jump on to the stage followed by some faltered steps to bring the mannerism on stage.  My friend’s timely action helped me to bring out my best there. And my female counterparts supported me greatly. So that everything went well. Next, I had to change my costume a little and come back to do the part of Hrithik Roshan. That I did without much trouble. Again, the whole place echoed with laughter. May be the contrast in the physic evoked their laughter. In between, the verbal comedy progressed. More and more laughter. It was a grand success. We rocked the stage. Everyone performed well. But one thing I had to mention is that there were many friends who stood only at the backstage and greenroom to make us ready and to arrange everything for us. One of them was always at the side of the stage to pull the curtain. She was the best singer of our class. They never appeared on stage, instead they found happiness in giving maximum support to us. This is the reason why I said that my friends are gems.

If I am not writing this, I will be missing out one of the important chapters of my life. I owe a lot to this place and a lot more to my friends, especially to my very dear friend.