All the world's a stage...

Writing about the Ozone street play got me thinking of the other plays I’ve been in, and huge attacks of stage fright notwithstanding, the stage is actually a really fun place to be. A place where you can shed your inhibitions and bask in the limelight. A place where you will get cheered (as your school will cheer you on!! Of course you’ll be jeered at too) and where you will forget your lines at times (but make them up seamlessly if you value your skin) and where you will have a hammering heart and cold hands.

So here are a few roles I could think of which I played:

The first one:

The dadu in a Rabindra Jayanti play involving a cat everyone’s mesmerized by…there was a whole pack of powder on my clothes, and very little on my hair, but at least I got the stoop and the quaver in the voice right-gimme a break, it was class 7!!


Not long after:

The bangal chakor in bharate chaai -a weird role involving an exaggerated bangal accent and a lot of gesticulation, for Teachers’ Day. Teachers loved the play-Inam looked amazing as a bangali bou and said “ki amar sokhar math gorer pran!!”(a teacher put her right), while hitting Mitra with a broom. That was the first big success--and that’s why we’ve been recycling Bharate chaai at regular intervals ever since, whenever we need a script fast.

Then there was Abak Jalpan which I don’t remember properly, and another one which our Bengali teacher made up..... and a few more I guess…none inter-school though.

There was a brief hiatus in our acting careers after that while we focused on our doomed-from-the-beginning band but Teachers Day and Rabindra Jayanti etc always saw us doing something, anything. We loved the stage and would do anything to get on it--all 11 of us!! 7th and 8th grade were packed with fun and we spent more time in our backstairs ‘practice’ spot than in our classes….I don’t believe how many classes we bunked back in 7…tar opor chilo music, debates, extempore, quizzes,-- everything we got our hands on, we participated in.
Maybe that’s why we got so jaded later on….

I got kinda sidetracked, but this will be added to and continued later on (hopefully)…..

Ozone's over, school sucks as usual...a grouchy post

So Ozone 2006 is over and it's back to school and handwriting practice( 'coz take notes is all we do) and i feel so empty. Abar back to drill in the hot sun for an hour and a half each day, Bengali class with the mad scramble for seats at the back, the lower-back-pain-inducing-chairs, the AC that doesn't work but is put there by the management on purpose to make us feel hotter....(fascinated? Don't worry, a post titled 'Why I Hate School's' in the works...)

Ozone was great while it lasted, though...jotoi onno onno feste giye participate koro, nothing quite beats the feel of the school crowd cheering you on....and beating certain schools (which shall be nameless)on your own turf.

This time I don'tknow why, I got into the mood late and as a consequence ended up participating only in the street play(we came 3rd by the way-bosco 2nd, sphs 1st. Bosco spoke the language of the people and won with audacity and skill firmly in place ; and sphs did 'Iqbal' which has a made to win script....we were good too, though).
Impact was fun, mbg had great costumes and was 2nd, bosco was disappointing and bvb was first; indipop, mock the band, were all the same as in every fest, fluffy and fun, while Jal was simply mind-blowing...I think I'm in love with Gohar Mumtaz.(by the way, all guys should have hair falling over their foreheads-try it guys, it does wonders for a sagging attitude and sagging lovelife. I woudn't advise one lock of hair though, only Superman can carry that off, but hair you and your girl can run your hands through-great.)

So it's almost 12, and I'm not supposed to be up blogging but here I am, and I'm sure to wake up late tomorrow and have to sneak in the back gate of the building; but then, gyan buddhi thakle I would not have lost my CBSE 10 mark sheet a month after I got it.( don't gasp, I found it again, although only after making thr trip to Allahabad for a new one...how my family puts up with me I can't imagine..)

Bye and goodnight and don't let the pyantakhancha below your bed get you.Use ginger-they hate it.

Richard P. Feynman

I've always loved learning how stuff works, how things happen, and the why of everything, so when my father handed me Richard Feynman's Lectures on Physics a year or two ago, I immediately fell in love with the books and, of course, the guy.

Feynman simply has to be the most original thinker, the most versatile, the most human scientist ever- a bongo player, an acclaimed artist, an amateur safe cracker, a practical joker par excellance, a favourite with the ladies, and a man of conscience-not to mention the little matter of the Nobel prize- he'd started to supplant Supes in my affections. The wow thing about the man is how he says all the time how little we really know, how little he really knows.....humble yet arrogant, the guy takes my breath away. And if you want to get hooked to Physics, really get the beauty of it, live on his books.
Oh, and trust me, his remembrances-Surely you're joking,Mr Feynman?-make for really engrossing reading.

But then, Miss cornelia bryant was right in Anne's house of dreams-

"aren't there any good men then, mrs. cornelia?"
"yes of course
dear, in the graveyard yonder..."

(or words to that effect)

Don't mind the cynicism, i'm just having a Jonah day.

Reason? It's the day after the Jal live in concert in our school fest-MBG Ozone06- and as a result i have a sore throat and blisters from shrieking and dancing, and i've pulled a muscle in my arm from waving them in the air-we were in the very front row by the way(there are some advantages to being tiny)-and now it's back to the old take notes-have lunch-take notes existence in school which drives me crazy and makes me long for a feynman of my own who lives life on his own terms....and figures out electron spin from throwing a frisbee in frustration.

God i love the guy......