It was our first year of the college.True to the traditions, we were done with the "intro" sessions with our seniors. Now was the time of "fuccha skit". Every year the "fuchhas" i.e. the first year-ites were supposed to present a skit. This was done branch wise, and the first prize was really coveted. A lot of preparations were needed. Ours was a branch that was always in the top. The year before it was first and so the same thing was expected from us as well.The branches with low girls:boys ratio (read as zero) went about trying to convince girls from other branches to join their skits. Ours was one of the luckier ones. We were 6 girls in a class of 28. (That I think was the highest ratio. Correct me if I am wrong.) We were strictly instructed not to entertain any such offers. "Okay Sir as you wish."
So one fine morning the entire branch (us "fucchas") and a few seniors assembled in the old building in front of the hall where this event was to take place on the D-Day and we had the our (for me the first and the last) auditions. We were given and character, dialogues and then told to carry out the role. Then on the basis of that we were given our final characters. I don't think there was anybody who did not have a role. One or two may be. So the audition did not have any rejections. All of us were accomodated in the skit. We were told the story. It was written by one of our seniors and I must say he must have given a lot of thought and time to come out with such a story which had everything from the "hoors" of heaven to the remake of sholay to the 'dance of fire' (or something like that, I am forgetting the term.). And then from then on, our mornings were no more fine. We had to wake up early (oh how i disliked that!) for the practices session, then we had our class. I don't remember but I think we had practice sessions after the afternoon classes also. By the end of the day we were not really left with either time or enthusiasm for anything else. There was the secrecy part that we had to take care of. Other branches should not be aware of our story and we had to make sure that there was no one else present during our practice session or else the place of practice was changed or the timing and so on. I don't think it was ever cancelled.
Once we were all comfortable with our characters (which I never was!), the costumes were decided. It really needed to be innovative and relevant to the character. Few characters had to have different costumes at different part of the skits and so on. You know the usual stuffs of skits. And then we had the music at appropriate places. It was really thought over. I know you all must be wondering what the story was but really, it was a little complicated and I am sure I wouldn't be doing justice to the story if I tried to narrate it here so... , in other words, I am not telling. What was my role? I was playing Basanti, in the 'remake of Sholay' part. The scene was the part were Gabbar says to me
"jab tak tere pair chalenge, tab tak iski saanse chalengi" (I think that is how the dialogue was). And I had to dance (ohhh I disliked that part so so much. I lost the count of how many times I tried to change my role. I still wish they had changed my role!!!). And that was not the "dance of fire". Well anyways, I was never prepared for the dance or the role or the skit for that matter but I wasn't prepared for the disaster that was to come either. To tell you the truth I was doing okay when we practiced. It was never great, I am not really cut out to be great in a skit.
The D-Day came. All of us stood there nervous waiting for our part to come. (I am not sure about others bu I was certainly nervous). When my part came, the audio system failed. There was not dialogue, just a song in background and my dance. So finally there was no song, just my dance, and probably the audience yelling at the disaster (which I thankfully don't remember). After that I had another small part which I completed. And then coming out of the stage I broke down and cried. I still don't know why I cried. But a lot of people did try to console me and I finally did manage to stop my streaming eyes. At the end of all of it, we had photo sessions. I don't have the photo but I remember looking horrible with my face completely blotched because of the tears. I also remember having being given chocolate to compensate for the disaster. ;)
I never had the courage to face the crowd again after that
Btw we did win 2nd prize even after my disaster. And in case you are wondering the song to which I had to dance, it was ... "
teri har ada sitam hai jaanlevaaa..." ah never mind if you haven't heard it before
