The universe is not made of atoms,
it is made of tiny stories.
In stories lies the essence of what we like to call the journey of life. We all have a story to tell and we all want it to be a good one.
My first call to theatre was when I was in second standard and got a chance to perform in a school play. I was too young to understand what Shakespeare said or meant. The beautiful dresses that I got to wear (Ah, I couldn’t stop dreaming about that Pink gown every night in my sleep) and the beautiful balcony set up (which, coincidentally was also pink) that I got to deliver my dialogues from were just the reasons enough to get me hooked to the idea of being a part of that make believe world, for life.
But, it wasn’t until I stepped on the stage for the final show that I realised the power of what I was doing.
There was a world created right around me that I knew didn’t exist and still felt as real as my own existence at that time. And better yet, there were people sitting there in front of me ready to be a part of my journey, ready to believe the things I was going to tell them and ready to share the same emotional space as I was to go through during that time. It was all the encouragement needed to convert that first encounter into a longing to continue with the same feeling again. It’s not like it was all perfect or that I didn’t mess up. I entered two scenes I wasn’t supposed to be in and replaced the bottle of the poison I had misplaced with some perfume bottle I had found in the green room. But, even these little mistakes and the moment I corrected them in had it’s own thrill. Everything about the stage felt new and limitless.
And to talk about the moment when I was on stage – “In that moment, I was infinite.” 🙂
And so began my association with this beautiful world of stories and story telling.
-Akanksha Bhardwaj