Funny Small Town Experiences-Drama

The verandah of our house with the lush green field in front acted as a natural stage and there a great temptation to act on it. Inspired constantly by radio plays and mobile theatre we- the children- wanted to form our own drama troupe.

The first attempt was a disaster. We noted down some dialogues from a mythological story and planned to stage our 'play'. We convinced our parents and relatives to be in the audience. I got the role of the King and my younger brother got that of the commander. Other roles were filled in by our newfound friends.

The 'play' eventually began. During its course the King ordered the commander to prepare for war. The commander refused to obey. Obstinately so. Our parents had to intervene trying to convince my younger brother that he had to obey only in the 'play' and not at all in reality!

Seeing our continuing obsession our elders decided to help us doing it in a more organized way next time. They helped us selecting stories or readymade plays and supervised our rehearsals.

The audience was sizeable that time with curious people of the entire locality joining in. One kind elder took up the prompter's responsibility.

The play began well and was progressing in full swing. The audience was silent receptive and somewhat appreciating too.

The eldest of the three brothers whose houses lined up the other side of the field came out of the house and headed for the stage.

While doing my role passionately I still saw him nearing the audience. I was thrilled that our performance was strong enough to draw him-the most dreaded one of the three brothers-out of his house.

He joined the crowd, but did not stop there. To my horror he was still coming-now directly heading for the stage. Just a step away from the stage or rather the verandah he stopped momentarily and smiled at us the supposed actors. We got panicky knowing nothing about what to expect or to do next. We still somehow managed to carry on with our dialogues. The audience was excited anticipating some kind of experimentation.

The dreaded one ascended on the verandah. And, we froze into our positions; dialogues dying up on our dried lips.

He looked directly at me, 'Hello my dear! Where are your parents? Please call them!' I tried to convince him that we were doing a stage performance by giving him a most furiously pitiful painful and scandalized look. That only made him widen his grin.

Sensing trouble my father immediately came up and accosted the dreaded one. Happier now the neighbor addressed my father, 'Hello Sir, how are you? You see, I have come to invite you all. Tomorrow there is a religious function at my home. Please come all of you and have lunch with us!' My father assured him and quickly helped him across the verandah. There were chuckles now in the audience at this inadvertent humor.

Insulted and humiliated that we truly were, we had no alternative but to carry on till the official end of the play.