A novice writer, a first time director and a bunch of excel trained corporatites...

That title says it all, i guess. I have nothing more to write. But well... I will....

This is the story of my experiments with truth... He he... I mean my experiment with writing my first ever play script.

Koo called me one early morning in my holiday in Bangalore and asked me to get ready for a meeting. I dragged myself out of bed and had started to brush my teeth when it suddenly hit me. I was in Bangalore. On a holiday. I worked in Delhi. Where the hell had this meeting come from?? I realised Koo was joking and jumped right back in bed and Zzzzz...

Koo called again in about an hour or so later. He was at his clients office. And apparently he and his client were waiting for me. This meant that i didn't have the time to get ready as lazily as one does on a holiday. I didn't even have time to ask Koo what this was about. So i rushed through the routines and rushed to his clients office. My timing was perfect. I reached the minute the client, henceforth referred to as Mr.C, had to attend a con call. This meant i had the time to first of all blast Koo and then figure out what i was doing there. He told me that Mr. C had their annual meet and they had to stage a play representing Bangalore. So they wanted help with a concept and a script. Well... I have done my bit of theatre. So i guess it was ok. Not so bad on a holiday...

Mr. C finished the con call. We discussed the theme of the event and the basic message that was to be conveyed in the play. You are not going to believe what was given to me... The script had to be funny yet serious, message conveying yet not boring and short yet long enough. SUPER i thought. This was going to be like super easy. Yeah right!! Since i had written quite a few scripts till then. Let me count actually. Ummm... Err... After much thought and recall i can proudly tell that this was my FIRST script. FIRST SCRIPT?? And this was Koos client. Anything went wrong and well you know the rest. The play had to convey super interesting messages like DOMINATION, COURAGE, POWER over their competitors or something like that. And this was an insurance company. EXCITING no??

We finished the meeting. And i told Koo a concept i had thought of. Yeah i had already thought of a concept. He said its upto me. And then i did what i do when i am in a tough spot like this. I decided to apply my mind, concentrate, focus and... ask my mom to help me. She agreed just like she had each and every time she wrote my essays in school. She liked the concept i had in mind. See i am not totally useless. So she wrote a skeleton script. It was good enough. Then the rest was a lot simpler and fun. I dramatised it a bit. Like jazzed it up with directions for music and certain changes in the dialouges to add to the humor. Then suddenly i realised that i had to email the script to him. Email meant i had to type it in. And type it on an excel sheet. For some time i had forgotten that this is work at some level. And an excel sheet was the last thing i wanted to look at. But well... It had to be done. And i did it. And emailed it to Mr. C.

Next morning i woke up late quite pleased with myself about having completed the task in the given time. Just when i was praising myself Mr.C called me. His call was like this scene from a movie where the shot is a sudden close up of the face with this loud thunder like sound in the background. He said 'Mazaa nahi aayaa'. My world came shattering down. How could he say it so easily?? I asked him what he didn't like or what he thought was wrong?? He just said the messages that have to be conveyed are not clear enough. He said people wil take this too lightly. He went on and on. Something made me stop him. Else he would have torn me apart. I figured that i would have to meet him again and explain it to him. So there it was... My SECOND meeting on a holiday.

I reached his office a couple of hours after he had shatterred my little happiness. I had no clue what i was going to explain to him. But something hapenned. I walked in and i was on song. I almost enacted the whole play out in front of him with full sound effects and emotion. My performance lasted about 15 minutes. I finished. He looked at me and said nothing. Silence filled the room. My heart was thumping loudly. I don't think i could survive another blow. My eyes pleaded him to speak. The silence continued. And then... I asked him. I had to. He started playing with his mobile phone like he didn't want to say anything. Ok i am going to stop building this up more. He spoke finally and said that it made complete sense to him now. Phew... I sat down exhausted. But he said he was worried whether he and his team will be able to perform the way i had explained it. I wanted to say that's not possible because they are not like me. But i shut my mouth. He asked me to post pone my return ticket and help them with the play. But that was not possible. My regular routine in Delhi called for me to be there. Somehow now i wanted to continue this. But well that was not possible. So i told Mr.C that Koo was good at that and he would direct them.

I got out of the office and met Koo and broke the news to him. And suddenly the smile from his face was gone. He was not the least bit interested in directing them. Just like i had written a thousand scripts before this one, he had directed a thousand plays. But i could not do much. So i left him with it and was soon back in Delhi.

The first few days i kept getting calls from Koo asking me to explain certain parts of the script. He was finally getting into it. I thought. Then there was no news from him. Days passed. Then one evening he called and said that they were going on stage in 15 minutes. I froze. I was tensed. I told Koo to call me the minute they finished. I had stopped doing what ever it was that i was doing. I started pacing up and down the office. An hour passed away and nothing happened. I checked if my phone was switched on. I did that some hundred times i think. Then i gave up. I called Koo. He cut my call. HE CUT MY CALL... So what was happening?? Had they finished?? Had they not?? Did they perform well?? Did they goof up?? What?? What?? WHAT?? Just then Koo messaged that they were on stage. Oh boy... So i had to wait for some more time. I tried sitting. Didn't work. I was pacing again. Another hour passed. This was getting too much. I mean if they were on stage back then that meant that they would have finished shortly after that. Not an hour... What was Koo doing?? I tried calling him. He cut my call again. This time there was no message as well. I didn't know what to do. I had no other number to call on. Ahhhhhhh... This was killing me... Finally Koo called. And i let the phone ring a lot to show that i had other important things to do. But that was troubling me only. So i picked up the phone and Koo screamed. Like this long tarzan like shout in a never ending wail. It meant what, i don't know. But it didn't make me feel better. I was not ready for another close face shot with thunder like music scene. Then Koo shouted out that the audience totally loved them and that they performed flawlessly and that all the music cues and everything was just super. Like SUPER DUPER... And the audience gave them a standing ovation and asked them to perform again. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... It was my turn to scream. The same tarzan scream. And i was jumping all over the place. Ahhh... The beauty of hard work and perseverence. He he... It pays and pays well. Not like it was all that hard work considering i had help from my mom and i was not around for the tougher part of it. The direction. But what the hell. Team effort. In a team, every player is important. And each and every positive contribution is what leads to a good team performace. So i can say my part in this was important. Yes it was. So don't try and change that. Don't try bursting my little happiness bubble once again. Let me live in it...