Myself in 26 verbs - Part 1 (Myself and Acting)

Before, reading this article, you could read, why I started writing this series here => Introduction to Myself in 26 Verbs

Even Tamil Saint Tiruvalluvar, started his work with the first letter of the Tamil Alphabet. I have decided to follow his foot steps. So here I am beginning my “Myself in 26 Verbs” with the Verb starting in the first letter of the English Alphabet, ‘A’.

Myself and Acting:


Before the commencement of this piece of writing, I want to give you a statutory advice. When I say ‘Acting’, I only mean Official Acting. This article will not speak about “Unofficial Acting”. For those who are baffled about the difference between Official and Unofficial Acting, here is the meaning from Subbu’s Dictionary.

“Official Acting is where the spectators are aware the concerned person is acting. If the Viewer is not aware that the concerned person is acting, then it is called ‘Unofficial Acting’.

Still confused? Thought so. Definitions in Subbu’s dictionary are so technical, that mere mortals like you, won’t be able to grasp it. It requires a PHD in English Literature to comprehend ‘Subbu’s Dictionary’. Let me explain ‘Unofficial Acting’ with an uncomplicated illustration, that even layman would appreciate.

Let’s say there was a Chemistry Teacher from your school, you hated the most. Now, you come across him / her as you cross the road. When they smile at you, you are expected to smile back. At that time, you will be reminded about the way he/ she distressed you in the class rooms, but still you are expected to smile back. Your inner heart will be commanding you to aim the stone lying near by at his/her neck, but still you have to disguise the feelings and grin at him/her. The teacher, oblivious of your inner sentiment, would go back thinking “What a respectful students he is! Those days students were so nice, when compared with the morons today”, totally forgetting that we were shoddier than the current set of students, when we were at school.

This is what, I mean by ‘Unofficial acting’ and the reasons for not writing about it are two fold. First is that, My chemistry teacher might actually end up reading this blog, and all the good name that I had acquired through ‘Unofficial Acting’ might fade away in no time. I don’t want to take that risk. Second reason is that, if I start writing about it, there is a danger of Internet going out of space. That is an overstatement of course; but I hope you got the point. After all writers are allowed to exaggerate a bit, so you shouldn’t grumble. If I start explaining my life without exaggeration, then my blog might end up as your sleeping medication; in the same way my engineering text books acted as my sleeping pills cum head support, during those four long years.

Okay, enough of my blabbering. Let us get back to our topic, “Myself and Acting” or to put it exactly “Myself and ‘Official’ Acting”.

Like most of you, majority of my acting was restricted to the annual day celebrations during my primary school days. I, as some of you might be aware, studied in the school run my mother from UKG to Fifth standard. (I studied less than three moths of LKG. So those of you, whose kids aren’t doing well in LKG, beware, your kid might turn up like me). There I got a chance to act in the Annual Day celebrations every year. No, don’t blame my mother for soft spot shown towards her son. You could blame my mother for many things, but showing partiality toward her son, could never be the reason for it. For her, all the kids studying in her school are one and the same.

When my mother was studying and then working as a teacher in another private school, one thing always annoyed her. Whenever there was any event, only the smartest and cutest kids were preferred to take part. Hence she vowed that when ever she starts her own school, she would give chance for each and every kid, irrespective of their brightness or beauty. That is the reason; I got a chance to participate in all the Annual Day celebration.

Now, during annual day, we were given a choice of whether to participate in play or Dance. Most of them selected Dance, for reasons I can never work out. However I always ended up selecting Drama. The official reason to who ever asked was that “I hate Dance”. The true explanation was – No your guess was wrong. It is not because I don’t know to dance. For that matter, I don’t know to act also. Fact was, in some of the dance, you could end up being asked to dance along with the girls. For some reason, at that age, I couldn’t digest the idea of dancing along with the girls. “Acting with the girls” is fine, but Dancing, it’s yuck.

Dancing along with the girls could also make me an object of fun, among my class mates, relatives etc. That is the risk I never wanted to take. However I couldn’t tell this as a reason to my mother. Hence I maintained the version of “I hate Dance”. If I had told my mother, the true reason for not dancing then, I might have got a chance to dance for a “Boys only dance”. However, I never told it, and as a result, I had to act in all the six Annual Day Celebrations in our school. The most daunting task in that, is to convince at least few of my friends to act, so that I don’t end up being the only person for Acting, whereas every one else is dancing.

However acting, didn’t stop me from getting ridiculed either. In one of the Annual Day, I had to act as a Father, taking his daughter to a Toy’s shop. The skit involved showing the performance of each Toy to my daughter. This was one of the ideas of my mother, to get as many kids to act, irrespective of their gift. As a kid, who can only recite a poem, could be made up as a “Poem Reciting Doll”, and a kid who can’t even do that as a “Head shaking doll”; whereas highly talented kids, could act as complex dolls. Nice Idea. Only draw back is that I was made fun of, for already being a Dad when I was in first standard.

Thankfully, from second to fifth standard, my mother gave me rolls, that no one could make fun of. In Second, I acted as India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. My cousin Arun (Anna) wrote and gave me a big speech in English about Nehru that I memorized and recited. I remember the new Pyjama Kurtha and the rose more than that speech now.

In Third Standard, it was the comic Tamil story of Paramatha Guru and his foolish disciples. My dad even got a “Paramatha Guru” book for the same, as I enacted the role of ‘Paramatha Guru. I am not sure, if the comic play elicited any laughter from the audience, but we definitely enjoyed the show.

In Fourth Standard, I played the role of Tamil God Muruga, in the play that enacted few scenes from “Thiruvillayadal” (Plays of Lord Shiva). I enjoyed that role, though only thing that kept bothering me was the attire. The rented costume for Lord Muruga kept infuriating me. However, I enjoyed the role so much, that I even remember few of the dialogues now. My favorite being “Illaya pillay yenral yedupar Kai Pillaya” that roughly translates into “Is the younger child, less favorite child”. (May be I liked this dialogue, as I was the eldest child in my family) This dialogue was narrated as “Vinayaga” gets the Divine fruit, after coming around the parents, saying that parents are equal to World.

However the most memorable aspect of the skit was Saravanan who acted as Vinayaga. During the annual day, pomegranate was given as the Divine fruit. He, who was studying in third standard then, thinking that it was a mango, started eating the fruit along with the skin. He with his recently removed trunk, lying near by, trying to bit through thick Pomegranate skin, made us all laugh like any thing. With myself also named after “Muruga” and as I also acted his role, he became my favorite God for some time during that time period.

Then came the fifth standard, my last year at my mother’s school. My mother decided to feature a play on Sillapdhigaram (One of the Tamil Epics, where Kannagi plays the lead role.) My mother felt, one of my class mate Amuda was well suited for Kannagi’s role, and she wanted this play to be featured. I played the role of the Pandiya King, who gives a wrong judgment and kills Kannagi’s husband. It surprised many, that being my last year in her school, my mother did not feature me in a play, where I get a chance to play the lead role. However knowing my mother too well, I wasn’t even a single bit astonished.

The only major difficulty of playing the role came when; I had to remove my crown. As Kannagi proves, that I caused injustice, I had to remove my ‘Crown’ saying that I’m not worthy of it. However, when I tried to remove my crown, my wig came along with it. Some how, I managed to remove my crown alone.

As I moved to St. Mary’s AI HS School to further my schooling, and later at SRM Engineering College, I put my acting skills to rest. During those eleven years, the only time I came close to acting was when was we went for outing to Ooty during our tenth standard. We had a camp fire, and each team had to perform a play. Our team planned a nice skit; however, with mikes not working properly, all skits were cancelled during camp fire, thereby leaving, my acting skills left unnoticed.

After college, as I joined Infosys Technologies Limited, we had an intensive four months training. Once our Technical training got completed, we had a week of soft skill training organized by “Infosys Leadership Institute (ILI)”. Though many felt those sessions were boring, I for one always enjoyed them very much. In one of the sessions, each group had to represent different styles of leadership with an example. With many not ready to take up the acting role, I took gleefully the opportunity to act like an “Indian style egotistical Boss”. My team mates appreciated my performance, and I felt happy that my Primary School acting skills hadn’t forsaken me.

The only other acting chance I got so far was during a “RETL Mela Event” conducted by our Retail Department in Infosys. Our account depicted a Mime about “Railway Safety”, and I played a major part of that play. If I had not been there, that play wouldn’t have taken place. I played the role of one of the Railway Platform :)