Adventure

I've always wanted an adventure. Ever since the first book was put in my hands, I wanted to experience the exact same wonderful events as those lucky people in books seemed to be having.

Only, nothing seemed to be happening to me, and I decided, in the manner of Mohammed and the mountain, that I would go towards adventure myself if it did not deign to come to me.

So far, so good. Then came the vital question: how?

I cudgeled my brains for ideas, and a few did appear. I think my first attempt at actually doing something came when I convinced my neighbourhood friends that we ought to do a skit for our parents and general family during the summer vacation.

Well, we eventually thought of a skit, a nice comedy play, adapted into English from a sketch in a Tamil movie, and we began practising.

We decided to have some songs and dances thrown in as well, to spice up the event, and regardless of the fact that none of us knew the least thing about dance, began our rehearsals with earnestness.

I'd seen dances on TV, and some up close as well, and thought I had it pretty well figured out. So I was appointed 'dance teacher'. Since I was also one of the few that could sing, I had to provide the live music as well.

Yeah, it seems like I did nearly everything, but I guess I was the most enthused about the project. It helped that I was the second eldest in our group and the originator of the idea in the first place.

The day arrived. My mother had kindly supplied cake and other eatables, and the other parents chipped in as well, providing seating and paper cups and plates. We had it all down pat, each one had a specific job to do, and thankfully, there was no stage fright.

I think we did a lot of things that evening, but I can only remember the dance that we did, for which I sang, and for which there was general applause and even an encore (from my mother, who else?) and the grand item, the skit itself.

Well, to put it mildly, it was a disaster.

No one laughed the whole time we were performing it, which was mortifying. I think they would have laughed, just to support us as only family can , except they had no idea it was a comedy we were doing. Later, my mother told me she didn't understand what we were speaking at all. As for me, I knew the whole thing was flat in the first couple of minutes itself, and I was immensely relieved when we got it over with.

It was really embarrassing in a way, and we never tried anything like that ever again, though we had had a lot of fun during the rehearsals. I was sorely disappointed at the skit failing, because I'd completely loved it, plus I'd been the director( in case you didn't guess). I also acted in it, produced it and was the casting head as well. Talk about multi-tasking!

But even if the event fell flat, I'm glad I went and actively did something instead of just sitting and moaning about how interesting life was in books and how nothing like that ever happens outside.

So it was a success in a way!