The bigger world

I was not too keen, but this person would not let go, he kept calling me. As a part of the Kannada rajyostava celebrations in my office, some of our associates had come together to enact a couple of skits. I, being a little shy, and having enough stage fear agreed reluctantly to join him during the practice.

When i first entered the "recreation" room , i never thought i would spend the next entire week there. As i sat listening to the group, evolve the script, i wondered how (if at all) i could contribute. I did not want to go on stage. So when i told them that, they agreed, said there would be enough work backstage, turning ON and turning OFF the background music. I said "OK", tat would be fine. I thought i would be comfortable doing back stage work, i had done tat a good number of times in college.

But i never could have imagined tat this last one week would be so enjoyable and memorable as it has been. It was, for me a much needed break from the long, monotonous work (or..of late ...the lack the of any ...). I have laughed so much, enjoyed the entire process so much, with all its goof ups, especially the goof ups, that i am now feeling a little agitated, that i will have to get back to normal work from Monday.

I have since i joined the company, kept away from any kind of activities apart from work. One of the reasons was sheer amount of work i was doing, practically had no time off (till recently...). The other, well, that i was (and am), really not happy with anything around me in my office, have become really pessimistic, and have developed an aversion to anything and everything related to work and office. For me, till last week, my company meant only one thing, "work", and people who want WORK done at ANY cost (the definitions of both the words extend able to mean anything in the world).

Anyways, to sit back and see, we came up with a script, or rather two of them in less than a week, practiced, fine tuned, added music, and finally presented it. Of course it was not perfect, but it was good, good enough, i think.

We had a wonderful team, some excellent speakers, both in terms of content and presentation, some really good actors, picking up things in virtually no time, but most of all, every one in the team was really instinctive, the script was never fully finalized, simply because people kept coming up with new, better ideas and dialogues with every trial run.

And then, the job of turning ON and turning OFF the music, expanded, not in terms of profile but in terms of scope (to use job market terms). First the Fashion show (or rather the "ethnic wear" show), we had to find a track which would sound traditional yet modern, which would be soft yet not slow, the audience mostly the younger generation would like some rhythm and beats. Luckily one of the tracks we had, composed by Prem Joshua seemed to fit, the moves on stage also seemed to suit the flow of the song. Next, then the singing teams (with their karaoke) and dancing teams with some really good songs.And finally, the background music for the entire show. It was fun, to play the famous "Mungaru Male" music, exactly when Yograj Bhatt, the chief guest walked in, and when he was being felicitated. And to fill other times with some nice music. I enjoyed my part.

Of course, the common problems in the industry were visible here too, too many managers giving out conflicting directions to poor participants, bad quality of infrastructure esp the sound systems, and so on. But, inspite of all that, i think, we all put up a very good show. Thanks to everyone.

For me, i must say i met a lot of new people, each person interesting and different in their own ways, worked with a lot of new ideas, and heard innumabrable number of "dialogues" and jokes, every one them packed with a big punch. The world all of a sudden seems to have become bigger, with a lot more variety and color.