Wahhhh!!! Festivals

It’s the festival months of the year with Navratra and Diwali passed us in last months and now Christmas and the New Year to look ahead too. I remember as a young boy in school when festivals were the most beautiful time of the year. The time when we had those Diwali holidays and Christmas holidays and the Year ending with that 31^st night to welcome a New Year. What I loved most about all these festivals was the fun to share those beautiful time with different families, different cultures and different religion. Ramzan would be fun at home with lot of goodies at Iftars and have dad’s friend to open evening rozas with them at the table. All our building friends would wait to eat ‘Shir Khurma” on Eid ,my mum made. Eid namaz at Bandra's big Masjid. We would wait for Diwalis and those lovely plates filled with goodies like farsans and sweets. The Modaks during Ganesh chaturthi. Those lovely cakes during Christmas. Playing Garba during Navratra and singing those Bhajans, visit church and during the mass wait to hear those church bells. And the evening mass on New Year eve. During Diwali every house lit with those lovely diyas, diyas outside each home and colourfull lights on every balcony. Those beautiful star lamps during Christmas. Visit pandals with our Marathi friends during Ganesh chaturthi. Those displays during Christmas. Those mud pots filled with rose sherbet in Mohram and I remember I had visited a friend and he made me witness that Prabhat Feri. Loved hearing those shabats at Gurdwara. Eating those big motichur laddos from our Marawari friends at weddings. My god the list is endless.

I remember the time I travelled to Haridwar & Hrishikesh during Diwali. I was at the Ghats around 6pm on a beautiful winter evening, sipping on a cup of tea in a Kullad(Mud Mug) and watch the evening settling for the night. Suddenly lot of people gathered at the ghats and start performing Aarti at the ghats, the huge fire burning through this huge hand handled diya and the bhajan they were singing, it was so beautiful and soothing sound of music which reverberated the Ganga Ghat. After the aarti a lady just walked up to me and offered Prasad. And as I got up and turned to go I saw the whole place was lit with lot of colourfull lights. I can’t forget that visual which so beautifully etched in my memory and the walk next day on Laxman Jhula. I am eternally blessed to be born in this country with such diverse ethnicity.

Festivals were such wonderful and beautiful time of the year and the year to get closer to your friends from different religions and know more about their cultures.

Beautiful Religion and Beautiful Cultures and Amazing Families filled my growing up days. 

Travel & Games ...

I was in my 11^th standard (FYJC) and exploring new set of people and friends. I was at the top of my 6 feet 7 inches and confused what to do with my Height. A friend of my father(Abbas, top basketball player of India, and an Arjun Award recipient) came to meet him and saw me and asked what sports I play, well the usual games we played gulli danda, hide & seek etc. He laughed and said why you don’t come to the Basketball grounds where he played. So after a week I went to Nagpada Neighbourhood House club to play my first game. That built in my confidence and I began Learning and practising the game. The same year I was selected for National’s Maharashtra Junior team (Pune 1980-81). Well we lost at quarter finals but that put me onto playing basketball for no of years and also to travel. I came back from Pune and was offered a place in Western Railways team. My appointment was under sports quota and were allowed to work half day in office and from 3pm till 5pm I was at the grounds practising. But my desire to work in the creative field gave me an opportunity to join a theatre group and so my rehearsals from 6pm in Juhu.

But I recollect the days of my travel with western railways team. 

We got 1^st class pass for local travel and free passes for through trains. Whenever we travelled to Ratlam, Baroda, Rajkot, Jaipur, Madras etc. to play games we travelled in First class, the train would reach our destination, then our boogie would be detached from the main train taken to the yard area and stationed there. We would have electricity, water supply and we would continue our stay in the same 1^st class bogie, it would be a problem for me as I would not fit into those sleepers straight, so the space between the sleepers would be filled and a big bed used to be made with my feet going out of my cabin into the passage. Sometimes we would go on top of the compartment to take shower for fun, these big holed pipes would be our shower.

Wow! It used to be fun those days and a different experience of travel and stay. I enjoyed those meals at dhabas and Chais in Kullad( mud Mugs), those lovely snacks on platform, especially those cream roles with chai. Sometimes our bogie would be at the end of the train and we would open the small partition door and sit there watching the rail tracks going underneath. Wow!!! Lovely experience and fun filled days of travel and games.

Run to School

My school St. Xavier’s High School was very close to my house so much so that I could hear the bells of the school. Every morning it had become a habit of waiting at home till the second home and then running to school before the third bell and enter just before the gates would close. It was such a thrill to be able to make it right in time every time. Well, there were bad days when I would be late and then getting punished that day and sometime we had to sing the National Anthem in front of the whole school. And this would be repeated again in the recess. The moment our first bell would ring and dart home pick something to eat and run back to play and all this would happen in just 20 minutes. When I look back those 20 minutes were like an hour for me, because I would pack in so many things in those 20 minutes. The wada pav in school use to be so good, those churans, Imlees and Ice golas were priceless food for me. We all would have such limited cash to spend but still we would have so much to eat with that small amount. The pride to belong to a house in school, especially the sports day when we would only belong to our House and suddenly the other house friends become competitors. Annual sports day would be so much excitement with each one competing with each other and gathering points to be the top in the school.

And after school and our tuitions and studies we would play with other friends of the locality. The gulli danda, Lagori, Dubba ispas, chor police, cricket, hockey, aba dhabi or just hire Bicycles for half hour to visit friends and gardens little far from home. No late nights but got to hear those radio shows of Inspector Eagle, Sundays afternoon Cricket with Vijay Merchant, Sunday chitra haar, Phool khile hai gulshan gulshan and many such programs. We could watch only one movie a year on Eid. Those days there was a theatre in Vile Parle (east) which would show English movies. I saw all the Laural Hardy, Charli Chaplin and Dr do little, Chity chity bang bang and many such movies for mere 50 paisa tickets.

Wah kya din the who… so much fun… so much freedom to do things!!! 

First step on stage

I remember the first time when I stepped onto the stage as an actor. I had to get on stage to overcome my complex of being TALL, and the best way to get rid of it was to be in front of an audience and that too at Prithvi Theatre, where the audience is up close and personal. It was called Ek tha Gadha urf Allahadad, a political satire and I played a common man. In the market I had to walk up to the Nimboo seller and ask him how much it cost. The vendor replies “bhaisahab baith ke dekhyeh yeh santrey  hai”, people laughed as the joke fitted me well. So that was the first ice breaker of my stupid complex I was 17 years old at the time and then I went to do many plays with bigger and better roles to play. I also very fondly remember when I played a role where I was supposed to sing 4 lines live on stage with live Harmonium. I rehearsed for nearly a month to just catch the sur and sing it and very proudly I can say I did pull it off without going of tune, but that was my first and last singing stint.  I recollect many instances when I was loved for my being tall and ridiculed as well for being tall. But by and large I love being tall. It’s a different HIGH! Theatre changed me so much as a person and helped me nurtyre my creative mind. tallmanvision@gmail.com

Snippets of childhood & me

Disjointed thoughts and yet connected with each other. I remember I used to love those Kala Khatta golas at Juhu beach. And still today I do remember them when I pass the beach and than the urge to eat. Loved to eat while travelling on the outstationed trains, even if I was not hungry and still today whenever I travel I do eat before the flight and in the flight even if I am not hungry. I loved those sweet and sour Imlees and that I still eat whenever I fly by jet, they have those imlees which i always ask the hostesses to give me more. I am sure it must be for all of us and we do cherish things which we did as kids. I was very shy as a child and would have problems talking to them, well I am the same except that I am easy talking to them. Travelling, though changed me a lot and helped me see and interact with people in many ways. I remember when I was seventeen and had suddenly shot up to 6ft 7inches, the whole world changed for me, my view had changed and i was seeing things from much higher level than any other person around me. I got very conscious of myself and this sudden attention pushed me into my shell. People behaved very strangly and misbehaved, ridiculed me, made sharp and ugly comments that tormented me alot. I was not prepared for all this and started shying away from public eye. It took 2 years to overcome this issue and the day I realised how wonderfull it was to be tall there was no turning back for me. I opened my email id which read tallmanvision and my company also named www.tallmanvision.com. And theatre played a very important part in my life and groomed me well and I am proud that I took to theatre early on in my life. 

Walk in the mountains...

The last paper of my SSC board exams and I come home to be surprised by my father with a ticket of frontier mail to Saharanpur and to Dehradun, Mussorie. The journey began to see, learn and enjoy life. I cant explain the feeling of a young sixteen year who is venturing on a trip alone. I was warmly taken in by a punjabi famiky going to delhi, that was my first interaction of a punjabi famiky with such warm heart and great hospitality with a big appetite, such exotic food that I still remember the tandoori chicken and makidal. I met my uncle in Saharanpur and than went ahead to Dehradun to my other uncle who was a PWD engineer, he was working on the construction of a road from Mussorie to Nainital. The beautiful mountains of Mussorie and winding roads to the top. I remember very distinctively that Qurbani was released and the song Laila was played all over Mussorie. A small place but very beautuful and a single road to go back n forth [It was MAALROAD]. And there I met my first romance a girl from Meerut, dusky and sharp features{ sound like movies but true}. We used to meet daiky for a cup of coffee and ice cream and stroll down in the valley, but those 2 weeks were beautiful romantic days which had its oddity and shyness.  But we never met after she left Mussorie.
Than I ventured  to Agra, Fathepur shikri, Haridwar and risgikesh. What a stunning visual at Haridwar near Ganga Ghat on the day of Diwali, beautifully lit and that Aarti on the ghats, what a visual it was. And a winderful trip which ended with my results of my Board exams. So a new life was waiting to begin. 

Naughty Me...

I was very Naughty when I was in school. And had to do things that would put me into trouble and which is why I had to use almost 2 school calender with full of remarks, but fortunately I would always pass my class with at an avarage of 58% to 60%. I remember an incident when I was in 10th Standard our last yr at school. I loved being  part of Scouts and Guides team, but was not interesed in doing all the drills. It so happened that Scouts & Guides team arranged  a trip to Matheran, but since I was not a part of the group I was unable to go and that disturbed me. I worked out a plan and  immediately enrolled myself but the condition was to have a uniform to go, and it was too short a time to get one. So with great difficulty borrowed the uniform of a friend who was not going on the trip. And that was my first outting trip from school. I was so excited when I saw the mini train which goes up the mountain, the horse rides the jungle trails and the beautiful climate. My teacher Mr Das wanted to demonstrate how to get on to the horse and the next thing we know that he was thrown on the ground and a broken leg. We were so thrilled that he wont be on our back to tells us anything, we would just leave the hotel and return for food in the afternoon and at sunset. But it was the most memorable trip of my life. That started my travelling to various places in the world. That was the only stint I had with Scouts. When I look back I realise that how mean we were when our teacher got hurt, but I guess as kids we never thought beyond our entertainment. Thats school kids. 

I was always fascinated by live performances, and Prithvi Theatre was the place where I began watching plays of Amrish Puri, Shabana Azmi, K K Raina, Vijay Kashyap, Sudhir Pandey, Anjan Srivastav and many great actors. And surely in 1985 I got an opportunity to be a part of this fantastic Journey which continues till date. Glorious 30yrs of Theatre & events as a designer  with over 2000 shows, I still feel I am hungry for more. Even today it excites me to see actors perform live on stage. I remember va very interesting incident I was watching A play Royal Hunt of the Sun 2nd time and suddenly I was called outside the auditorium by the Director of the play Firoz Khan and taken up to the Light Room to operate the running show since his light operator left the play in anger due to some rift with the director. I was shocked to take over the show. I told Firoz how can i do, He said i know you are watching the play again and he was sure that I would remember the play (And yes I knew the play, His guess was right) so he said he will keep telling me and I ll operate and luckily the show went very smoothly and nobody in the audience realised that a new light operator had taken over. It was a terrifying yet brilliant experience of my early days as theatre and light designer. Next day Firoz presented a book as a token of appreciation for saving the play.  This live and ticking Journey is Theatre. 

Lets begin the stories...

We as children always wanted to hear stories and as we grew up we wanted to share stories. And these stories have stayed with us some for fun of it and some as inspiration. I remember my father when he would be tired and if we insisted on a story session he would start with a story which has no end and it would not move from its intial opening line, that would frustrate us but then in due course of time we realised that Dad was tired and needs his break. There have been instances when he would quote lines of wisdom which would confuse us than but when we think about them they had great relevance in our yrs to come.
This place is for all such stories and quotes which your parents shared with you. Lets relieve those stories from our younger years and share it to create a blog of "storytellers".

One such story from my past for you.

The little man.

From over the shoulder of the little boy, you see his mother entering the room. In the middle of the living room the nine years old boy in torn and muddy school uniform is looking straight at his father very confidently, while his father is reading the remark card.

The mother sits next to the father and he hands the remark card to her, as he hands it over the red remarks bring a sense of worry and concern on the mothers face.

The mother reads it and looks at the boy, and before she asks anything, the boy gestures with his hand conveying, ‘I will explain’

Boy, ‘I finally beat up that boy and then I went up to the teacher and told her that it is me who has written all those bad things about him on the bathroom walls.’

The boy now removes his specks and looks back at his father with a coy smile and continues,

‘And you know what dad, I also told the teacher that she is very beautiful and I really like you Miss Ann.’

The mother gets furious at hearing this but before she could react, the boy tells her,

‘Mom, there’s no point in screaming at me.’

He looks at his father and then addresses both saying,

‘Dad, mom. This boy has been bullying me since the past three months, he has been eating away my lunch box every day and not only that I have been punished every other day for the mischief’s that he has been doing. I have been suffering but did not know what to do?  So I thought why not stand for myself and get back and teach him a lesson. Do you still want to scream at your son on his decision?’

The mother looks at the father perplexed.

The mother asks the boy, ‘why did you say that to the teacher?’

The boy looks at the father and tells him, ‘dad, please handle it, it’s a matter of the heart, and she is really beautiful.’

The father is concealing a smirk.

                                                  *********************************

Following morning:

Father and son are in the car outside the gates of the school. The boy is looking down, not getting out of the car. The father puts his arm around the boys shoulder and tells him,

‘Be a man’

                                                                                                                                         The Little Man.