Monday, November 14, 2005

hope

"wish you all a very happy children's day! it's a day dedicated to you all and it's all yours...feel special about yourself and have great fun!"
these were my final words of the speech that i gave as a judge for the in-house drama competition in a school called APS public school. it is kind of strange, i felt that until recently i was used to listen to someone on a children's day as a kid i was on the other side this time!
may be i never thought i would address a bunch of kids on a children's day 10 years later, in 1995 when i was in class 9.

but for some reason, i was so happy to see the kids perform...they did a great job. i also remembered how it used to be when we used to do plays in school. man, we used to think that it was everything...i could see the same in these kids too...they were completely into it and it was so evident that it meant everything to them.

there were 4 plays presented by one each house of the school. the theme was "social evils and superstitions". we judged the plays based on three criteria, creativity, presentation and the content, of course with the other sub criteria like, expressions, energy level etc...it was good to see that the children were so creative. there were children from class 6 to class 12 in each house... and everyone had come up with their own scripts. it was surprising to see how well they had planned for it.
one play even had a flashback where they waved the dupatta and went back to the age where the lead actress was still a kid!
the best play was on superstitions... it had various incidents where in kids encountered with superstitious beliefs and how they were resolved...i want to quote one incident wher a kid goes to her grand dad and asks him as to what is a lunar eclipse and why shouldn't moon be seen then? her grandpa says that it is because the two demons rahu and ketu eat up the moon and so he disappears. the kid goes to the school and tells the same thing when the teacher asks "what is a lunar eclipse?" then the teacher gets 3 kids, one representing the earth, another one the sun and the last one the moon. he makes the kid playing the moon revolve round the kid playing the earth and this kid playing the earth is made to revolve round the kid playing the sun. and when they all come in a straight line, they show the sun casting a shadow on the moon and the teacher explains that hence people on earth cannot see the moon then!! it was presented so well that i was really impressed and the captain of this house had selected all the class 6 students to do this and they did a wonderful job!
there were a lot of interesting stuff...in one of the plays, one kid was hit by his friend and within no time he had black patch painted round his eye! very impressive... i thoroughly enjoyed the event.

it was hard to judge but we had to select a best play, best actor/actress and the best script...so we did that... but told them that they all had performed very well etc (typical judge stuff). as i spoke to them in the end, i was all excited about the fact that they are our future generation; they could make our country proud! this had never happened before...i was so happy for them ...for being the kids they are and for being the hope :-))

9 comments:

Akshay said...

impressed
at your enthusiasm too...

Supreeth Subramanya said...

Ash,
Nice to read this narrative. It's quite typical of you to get emotional on such things and it is probably needed (for someone who is not too self-centered).

Congrats for the first time thing! You didn't tell us, as to how you landed in the judge's place? Any further plans in the pipeline (not only for judging, but also for acting/watching?). By the way, did you go to this year Rangashankara theatre festival?

ashwini bharadwaj said...

not too self centered? i believe that everyone does what they do for themselves...so, i don't know wht it is...
umesh gave me this opportunity, he asked me to be the judge so i ended up being there!

coming to the plan...interesting thing coming up...17th and 18th nov, bristh theatre group is performing shakspere's measur for measure at rangashankare...have requested a friend to pick up the tickets...hope they aren't sold out!

Anonymous said...

Nice!:-) glad u had fun at the event..missing bangalore..waiting to be back..long hair and all:-)
--boda.

Jagadish said...

:D...kedi ashwini, nindu aa "Dear Coach" heading esht divsdinda ithu andre ....next post "Dead Coach" antha bariyo time bandithu....nodi nodi thale thirg beeltha idde....sadhya konege yenaadru thumbsdyalla blog nalli :)....maja ithu...first photo level aagi ide.. :D

Manu Gurudatha said...

Wow! great kane... full panti aagogidya! pesit hoogthya -recruit maadthya... school hoogthya prize kodthya... next enu?

hows hosa kelsa?

Maverick's Den said...

ayai!!
idella madtira neevu
its gr8 to hear this

Anonymous said...

u leave me speechless every time... must have been a cool experience a deja vu moment but from the other side of the table.. whatever that means. way to go.. keep them coming..and keep us posted.. as jaggi says.. that dear coach was getting to be really irritating :).. but as usual jaggi makes it more eloquent with the emotions :)
rashmi

Enigma said...

hey ash hi from oen more ash :)