Those wonderful days that were......

Just few days back we had an auditioning session for a small play that we plan to stage on 15th August, here in Tampere. I was one of the judges in this audition. Its really amazing and funny for me. Amazing because we got what we had not expected and funny because this was the first time I was judging!! ;) But anyway the purpose of this post is not to write my jolly time with the budding actors in Tampere, but with this audition session I went back in time. I went back to my school days. I still remember it was 9th standard, when I realized for the first time that I can try my hand in acting. We had a selection (in school the word audition was verrrrrrrrrry big so teachers used the word selection) for inter house (well the whole school was divided in blue, green, red & yellow house) drama competition. My friends thought because of my wonderful quality of talking continuously for hours together, I should try this also!! Well, I didnt care much coz I was knowing that it wont matter much as our school's regular best actor was in some other house so our house wont win anything. In fact the regular best actor was my very good friend (if he reads this post he would know that I am talking abt him), so I was actually prepared to cheer for him. 

I was selected in the play, well that was obvious because no one else was there for selection so all the 4 to 5 people who came for selection were selected. :) If you remember I told you about my wonderful quality to talk, well it seems even my teacher knew that. So I was offered one of the lead roles out of 2. If I remember correctly I was supposed to act as a Lawyer (well obviously!!) and me n my friend (the other lead actor of the play) were supposed to be in conversation for a long time on the stage. So that was toooooo much exposure for a debutant!! ;) But anyway, we did practice and perform as good as we could. But, as I told you before the regular best actor's play was well received by the audience and people thought we were blabbering something on the stage. Hence, we were at 3rd position and no prizes for guessing which play was first. But but but but, there is also an individual prize for best actor and best supporting actor. Well, once the first prize for the play was announced we were so disheartened (After all first play common!!) that we didnt even care to listen through the rest of the ceremony!!

The judge anounced me as the BEST ACTOR!!! I was in total shock and the audience was howling, shouting (obviously not BECAUSE I won it, but BECAUSE the regular best actor didnt!!) I went up on the stage to shake hands with the judges and they appreciated my stage presence, my timing etc etc (Well I put etc etc coz at that time I didnt even listen what they said!!). I was on the 7th 8th 9th sky!! I decided that I will become a professional actor and become like Shahrukh Khan (Well I am a Masters Student in Finland by the way!!). Then it was till my 11th standard continuously 3 times I won the BEST ACTOR award. Now I was the regular Best Actor of the school!! Those were really wonderful moments that I would always remember. I had one very close friend who would always tell me before my performance, "MAN YOUR PLAY WOULD GET A 4TH PRIZE, BUT YOU WILL COME BACK WITH A BEST ACTOR AWARD!!" and although outside I used to frown at him coz he insulted my play but from inside I used to be like WOW!! 

My journey as an actor continued in my college where I performed in the Inter College festivals and Zonal competitions as well. Now, here I am in Finland back to acting and ready for another wonderful journey of rehearsels, stage fear etc etc... I just love it!!

- Karan