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.