Well i am generally a very stage-shy fellow.I don't remember why,but that is how i have always been.I remember back at school how nervous i used to be before any presentation in the school morning assembly.The situation was much pathetic in Barmana,where i did my initial schooling till class IX.I still vividly remember my first major stage performance back in class VIIth.I was supposed to make a speech on some topic.The speech was supposed to be completed in 3 minutes . And the next thing i knew and before anyone else had a chance to realize,i had created the new world record by completing the speech in one minute flat.Nicknaming me "Rocket" seemed to be the obvious choice for the event coordinator,Hussain sir.I used to have sleepless nights whenever i had to give a stage performance.I still remember how my dad used to motivate me in plain terms to evade the stage fear ."Jyaada se jyaadsa kya ho jayegaa..koi tumhe maar thodee hi degaa agar tum achaaa nahee bol paaye to..".Well does look a reasonable argument to get rid of the butterflies in my stomach..I would repeat these words and all the philosophies of the gurus like "Dale Carnegie" which i read a lot..But the moment i used to step on the stage all these motivational quotes used to go for a "toss" and my only concern for the next five minutes used to be to blabber something at the rate of knots and then run away from the public,friends and family as far as possible..I used to motivate myself by saying that "shishir somehow pull this one..life will be back to normal after this nightmare..".
Then i moved to my hometown , Jhinkpani (Jharkhand),in class Xth.Now i should stress on a very important point here.I was always the school topper right from class VIth.And as is always the case , the entire school looks up at us as guys who are supposed to be good at each and everything.So for these obvious reasons my teacher will force me to participate in all the speech,debate competitions.I used to come up with every goddamn excuse in the world to save myself from the nightmare.I remember vividly how in class Xth i was thrusted with the task of competing with the big guns at district level in speech competition.And since it was handed over to me by Padhi sir,whom i respected a lot,i had no options but to give in..So i prepared for one complete week on the topic that was given to me-"Impact of Divide and rule policy on Indian history"..or something like that ..don remember exactly..So i sat and planned to write the entire speech myself because its easier to memorise and "vomit" something that is your own brainchild..Once the speech was ready the next task was practice sessions after the school everyday..And here lied the "real" problem..The very thought of stage kicked the dormant "stage daemons" back to life..The major cause of worry was that my guide used to always ask me to maintain eye contact with the audience to reach out to them with your words and do all sort of weird hand movements..But deep down inside i knew that the moment i saw into someone's eyes i would forget each and everything that i had mugged for weeks..Then i came with a strategy-comical,embarrassing but highly effective..I invented a special body movement for all my stage performances..Start from the extreme left of the audience ,keep on rotating your neck away from the left section of the crowd towards the right again and then back to the left again.All the while keep on blabbering something..The key point to be noted is that the neck should move at a constant rate , so that you cannot maintain eye-contact with anyone watsoever..And one more thing..Keep your hands stretched out all the time,one for each direction and occasionally both , as if you want to "reach out to the audience"..Well with the strategy chalked out , i was ready to rock our district level debate competition..
So we arrived at SJDAV ,the school that was soon to witness history in the making..So after patiently waiting for an hour and a half the competition was about to start..In the meanwhile,my "pre-stage" fears had taken backstage amidst the raining of beautiful chics from every nook and corner of Singhbhum(W)..I must confess i am not a despo , but for us guys from remote regions where "chic" scarcity has been a problem for ages , seeing "haryaali" once in a while is God's way of compensating for all the injustice he has done to us in the first place..And boy are we fools to miss out on such a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity??..ha ha ha..Ok getting back to the competition,it started on a dull note with boring speeches from every "tom-dick-harry" in Chaibasa..Then the real competition started..And guess what?? I was given the first slot among 20 odd participants there..Suddenly the "daemons" kicked in again..I was sweating profusely..And then the moment came.."Our first contender for the evening is Shishir Prasad from DAV Public School,Jhinkpani.."..For a moment i thought i will faint..But somehow the thought of Padhi sir came in my mind and i thought "this one is for you , sir..."..And then i stepped onto the stage..And without any formalities just started blabbering on the stage..I myself had no idea what i was doing..Thankfully , my speech was stopped mid-way through due to some problem in the crowd..Then padhi sir came to me and said.."What are you doing shishir??Zaraa dheere bolo..i know u can do it..!!"..Something happened..it was not what he said , but the manner in which he said that really propelled me to give my level best..And much to the shock of everyone ,and above all me i topped that competition..I don't know how i did it,but i did it..One year down the line my speech photo was published on the cover page of DAV Ranchi zone magazine..But that was it ..I had made a promise to myself..."Shishir ye stage sabke chakkar mein mat padna..its not worth it!!.."...But the school had some other plans for me..
As i said i was the school topper.To add onto that i was always very good in sports ..I guess that made me the obvious choice for leading the school in virtually each and everything..I was made the school captain,house captain and had a major say in sports..When you are given such responsibilities ,stage becomes a close friend of yours and you tend to spend lots of time on it..But i as usual would always come up with my academic commitments and avoid it..Over the next two years i did numerous quizzes and morning assembly sessions to improve my comfort level on the stage..But all this happened long after i had the two most embarrassing stage moments of my life..Wanna know about it..Keep reading!!!
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