So as i said i was a very well-known guy back at school..Especially in the teachers' circle,i was quite popular..And unfortunately,a little too well-known to our principal ..It was the beginning of class XIth.Our school was planning to introduce Information Practices in the school curriculum for the first time in its long history..So our school had arranged for a guest lecture from "ARENA MULTIMEDIA" to encourage students to let them know the sea of opportunities that IT/IP open for you..The lecture was as usual boring and i watched and looked at the guest with the least interest..I was all the time just thinking about my entrance preparation..Nothing more,nothing less..Finally the lecture ended.I was happy that i could go to my home now and continue with my prep rather than wasting my time on such useless matters.But then it happened..A bolt from the sky and that too when i least expected it..Our principal sir called for me and asked me to give the vote of thanks..I was shell-shocked..I was sweating..But i had no options..If at least he had given me five minutes,i could have thought of some lines and vomitted that on the stage..I don't like to be on stage even when i am fully prepared..But here i was on the stage ,in front of all my juniors and teachers,and with no clue of what to say..But had to blabber something for at least two minutes..I stood up and went to the stage.."Good afternoon everybody..We just now had a guest lecture from ARENA MULTIMEDIA..It was very informative..I would like to thank them on the school's behalf..It was really very informative.."..blah blah..I don't remember how many times did i use "very informative" in that short vote of thanks,which was so full of broken sentences..The way i was speaking at that time was really embarrassing me,but had to somehow pull it off!!Finally two minutes got over and i slipped away from the auditorium,took my bag and ran as fast as possible to my home..If at all i have to rate the most embarrassing moments of my life,boy that will be the among top three for sure!!I had only thought in my mind for the rest of the day..What will be the ARENA guys thinking?? "If this is the state of arguably the best student in the school..(believe it or not the quality of the best student is often used to define the maximum potential of any school)..does it deserve to be called a proper English medium school??"..
The second one was also equally embarrassing.At this point i must tell you that our principal was very much interested in giving all "fundaas" and philosophies all the time..So one day as usual we were having the chaat morning assembly..And then i don know what happened to him , he took a stanza from our prayer and said that "You have been reciting this poem for ages now..Can anyone explain to me the meaning of it??"..And the very next moment he was staring at us twelfth graders..No one volunteered..And he started his morning tamaashaa.."Shame on you twelfth graders..blah blah".I thought probably guys will raise their hands and along with them i too will raise my hand.."I raised mine"..And then in the state of utter miscalculation and to my shock no one else did..everyone was looking towards me as their saviour..What next?? I was asked to explain this "enlightening concept" in the next assembly."Holy cow..!!"...But thankfully , our principal just like me forgot about the entire issue and life was back to normal again..Until one day , "Hitler's wife" made it a point to live upto her husband's words..So there i was ..least prepared ,sweating like a pig..And unlike other situations in the past i had no clue what to speak here..Just blabbered something about god and his greatness and embarrassed myself to the brink..
That was it...No further "accidents" at school.Then i joined NIT ,Trichy..The ragging opened me up a bit..But i was as expected very cool when in my friend circle,but the same frightened kid on the stage..Kept myself away from any stage appearence what so ever for the first three years,with occasional microsecond stage cameos..One that obviously stands out is my first year "SECTION DHAMAAKA" skit performance - "The Modern Sholay."..Though the skit was a blunder,i had fun and i contributed to the skit in ways more than one-be it background singing or playing the villager...Group activity on stage was never a problem..I did a couple of english skits back at school also..It were the individual performances that bothered me..It was after third year that i got ample oppurtunities to be on the stage..
The first one was our presentation at Aurigo..I still remember how sincerely i prepared for that..But the presentation was a catastrophe to say the least..But my partner "Subbu" handled the situation pretty well..Then came the RFC presenation for our network lab ...I would say it was a decent performance , though i never looked towards the audience..But things were soon to take a positive turn and i was game for it...Keep reading for the concluding part of the series!!
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