CROSSROADS

Part-5

A month had passed be and it was a smooth and knowledgeable journey here in NSD. The situations in the home were a little better than before.

As it was the last day we had a play and the family members were invited. The expected numbers of spectators turning up were around 300. I was given the lead role so I was nervous. Though I had learnt how to act and did a few stage shows as well while learning but in those days the spectators were the group member and the instructor. It was the 1^st time our group was supposed to perform in front of such a large spectator and ours was the last performance. I was standing behind the curtains as the parents had started to take their seats and I was searching for mine. I had kept the passes for the show and I was hoping that they would come.

When the whole auditorium was full and I was about to give up, I spotted ma coming along with Sheila aunty. I knew dad wouldn’t come and I was right anyways I was happy that my mother came for my show. Sheila aunty was spell bound looking at the whole auditorium. She was saying something to my mom but my mom was not at all interested. There were some participants near the stage she was staring towards them trying to find me.

The chief guests had arrived and after the candle lighting session the plays had begun there were three plays to be shown and mine was the third and last one. One by one the names of the participants were called out who were in the 1^st group. My mom was hoping to hear my name and I was standing behind the curtains looking at her whereas Sheila aunty was totally disinterested.

After about 20 minutes the 1^st play was over and the second group had started walking on the stage. Their names were being called out one by one and my mom was hoping that this was my performance and I was still standing behind the curtains looking at her.

Few minutes had passed by and the organizers informed that it was the group of my turn to perform. I could see some of my group members were stretching and some were meditating I was still in my old position i.e. Looking at my mom. She was impatient as to when the name of my group was going to be announced.

Finally the time had come and it was my time to perform. The smile was back on my mother’s face and even Sheila aunty looked like she was waiting for me to come out and if I did any mistake she would not waste a second to laugh at me. My name was announced and my time had come.

The lights of the auditorium were out because my act was mime so there was a beam of white light and it would fell upon those how would be acting that time.

The spectators turned silent. Their full attention was upon us. After all they never saw such a thing and they didn’t even blink an eye as they didn’t want to miss a particular scene.

Scene 1:

There are 3 people on the stage- A guy and his parents.

Guy goes to his parent’s room and he asks for something. Dad shouts angrily on him and asks him to leave.

The Guy goes to his room and sleeps.

While sleeping he sees a dream

Scene 2:

He sees his life from the childhood days when he was beaten, when he heard no for his demands and how the sadness in him increased.

Scene 3:

As the dream progresses he sees his school life, when the teacher used to slap him and punish him in front of the class, how the kids made fun of him. He saw how the sadness increased and the love he had once started to turn in anger

Scene 4:

He then sees the phase of his life where he loved a girl how badly he wanted to be with her. But she too rejected him and how much he broke from inside.

The dream continued and he didn’t realised he was crying he wakes up suddenly, wipes his eyes sits on the bed and looks up towards the sky and think about something.

He gets an idea and decides to go ahead with it

Scene 5:

(Suddenly the white light disappears and the whole auditorium is dark)

(When the white light comes back)

There are some dry leaves spread on the stage and a rope hanging from above which is moving to and fro like a pendulum and no one can be seen on the stage.

--------THE END-------

         

The light comes back and he could see that eyes of the audience from the 1^st row were wet. People were giving his team a standing ovation. His eyes were searching for his mother’s eye and when he saw her she was also crying.

CROSSROADS

Part-4

There were two entrance gates in my home. Sensing that my parents and the outsiders were sitting in the t.v. room I decided to enter from the back side which was near to the kitchen.

The creaking sound of opening the door caught their and there was a pin drop silence in the hall. My mom sensed that I was back home so she started calling my name and I could hear the sounds of her foot wear coming towards me. I had to duck myself and hide in a corner behind a drum. The moment I hid myself she arrived. The opened the door again but seeing no one she felt dis appointed and she walked back in to the hall and joined the others.

I tiptoed myself out of the kitchen and hid myself behind a pillar. It was Sheila aunty once again with her whole family and she was speaking something about the kids ignoring their parents and doing what they wished to do and also she compared me with her own son. I hated her and when she said this line my hate considerably increased.

Seeing the tension building I called one of my friend and he came to my rescue. He told my parents that I was with him for some work helping him in some work and he didn’t realize how fast the time went away.

The calmness had returned in my parents face. They were told that I would be back soon. Now this was my parents turn to defend me against Sheila aunty. Sensing that her plans had failed, Sheila aunty along with her husband left for their home.

I went into my room and prepared myself to face my parents.  When I was sure that they had gone. I decided to step out and face them

I opened the door of my room which was loud enough for my parents to hear.

Dad: how come you came out from your room? You were at your friend home

I didn’t say anything

Dad: speak something tell me where were you?

Me: out for some work

Dad: what kind of work? I know that you didn’t go to your friends place. You can’t be home so early its 30 minutes away. Stop lying and tell me where were you.

Me: audition (I murmured)

Dad: what audition? You had your cricket trials today and you skipped it

Dad: tell me to which audition did u go to?

Me: theatre

Dad: loud

Me: theatre

Dad: oh so our son wants to be an actor (he said looking at me and then at my mom)

Me: yes I want to

Dad: so you think you can be like Amitabh bachchan? Look at you; you don’t stand a chance.

Me: you think if I had joined cricket I would have become Sachin Tendulkar

(Slap - slap)

Dad: look what he learnt today. Those people teach him how to answer your parents back.

What are you staring at? Madhu look at the guts he has. Now that Sheila got one more chance to show off

Get out from here don’t talk with me ever.

 I went back into my room ate my food and I slept. A new world was waiting for me

CROSSROADS

Part-3

I woke up startled haring the chirping of the birds sitting on the window pane of my room, the sound of the cycle of the newspaper boy distributing newspapers in our area, the aroma of the tea which the nearby chaiwala prepared and the slow sounds the dog made showing how hungry they were. Sound of laughter could be heard coming from the park nearby where the old people of the society went and enjoyed. All these events made my morning a total bliss.

I looked at the wall clock of my room. Clock just struck 5. I woke up an hour early today so i decide to go for a walk and grasp something from the nature which I observed sitting on my bed. I slowly tiptoed out of the house and I went for a walk. I walked for around half an hour exploring each and every part of the society which was absolute silent at this point of time. It gave me a heavenly feeling.

I rushed back home and tiptoed again. Went to the washroom and got ready. Still 1 hour was left for me to take the metro towards mandi house. So I decided to take out the script and rehearse once again. The rehearsal left me quite satisfied.

The time flew by and I left to board the train towards mandi house. As i started walking towards the metro station, my heart begun to race. I was excited as well as nervous.

After a forty minutes long journey from metro and a 5 minute walk my destination came.

A big crowd had gathered in NSD today which gave me a spine tingling feeling. I could see people from all over India had come and try them self out in one of the most prestigious drama training institute of the country. It felt good to be present here, to feel good about the fact that I was going to do something which I always wanted to do.

The door of my room was closed. Mom kept on banging the door trying to the best of her capability to wake me. She didn’t make any efforts to rotate the knob and try to open it. She knew I used to sleep with the doors locked.

It was 9 in the morning and the chores of the house were in full swing. The hairs of my mom were still wrapped in the towel while the drops were wetting the floor. My dad was sitting in the sofa flipping the pages of the newspaper as he cursed the people for what was going on. Sala was his favourite word when it came to cursing any one. (P.S. including me) and the maid was washing the utensils. Two more knocks in the door and still no response. The patience in my parents was breaking as I had never slept so late.

Papa: madhu tension kyu le rahi ho? Wo so raha hoga raat mein late soya hoga

Ma: aisa nahi hai ji. Wo toh kal jaldi so gaya tha

Papa : madhu tension mat lo (he said flipping the page)

Ma: kaise baa pho aap? Aap ka bacha abhi tak so raha hai aur aap ko darr nai lag raha? Aap araam se paper padh rahe ho? Kaise pita ho aap

Papa : kya karu mein wo so raha hai sone do.  Mujhe kya suna rahi ho ? darwaza khol k khud nahi dekh sakti

Ma: apne bête k bare mein yeh bhi nahi pata ki wo darwaza band kar k sota hai

(Dad rose from the sofa and came towards the door. He held the knob and the door swung open. The room was tidy, bed sheet was neatly tucked in, and books were arranged neatly in the study table, clothes were kept inside the cupboard. They were shocked as their son was missing from the home.)

Papa: ek darwaza nahi khulta tumse huh. Pata nahi kaisi ma ho

Ma: mera beta kaha gaya. Aur daanto tum usko bhaag gaya na ghar se

Papa : daantne ko bola kisne tha

Ma : meine usko samjhana ko kaha tha.

Papa : Yeh sab us Sheila ki wajeh se hua. Aur bulao usko ghar.

Ma : haan tum toh yeh chaoge nai ki meri koi dost ho mein kisi se milu ya kisi se dosti karu

Papa : haan haan tum toh bas sunao mujhe. Yeh nahi apne bête par dhyan rakh le. Kya pta wo kisi dost k saath khelne gaya ho. Band karo apna yeh rona. Chinta mat karo wo cricket khelne gaya hoga aa jayega 3-4 baje tak. Meine usko baat karte hue suna tha cricket k liye. Jao nashta lagao

Ma: ruko la rahi hoon

The events at my home came to normal. Papa re started his nuspaper reading session saying sala in between and my mother went into the kitchen.

There was a big welcome board sign. Pamphlets were being distributed describing about the audition procedure and announcements could be heard from the speakers set up in then the venue. I could see the tension in the parents more than their kids. It felt like the parents pride was at stake. I was glad that I came alone. After reading the pamphlet thoroughly I went straight towards the registration counter which was still closed and to my surprise I was 4^th in the queue. I guess people were waiting for it to open. I stood there for just 20 minutes when the counter opened and a tide of children ran towards us. I feared for some mis happening. Gladly there weren’t any.

Registration was a quick process and I was told to report at the Rangmanch auditorium where my audition was supposed to take place. Thanks to the map of the venue the organisers had printed in the pamphlet I reached there in no time.

It was a big auditorium having a capacity of around 200-300 spectators. The stage was quite big to which could accommodate 14-15 actors in one along with their own props. In the 1^st row near the spectator section sat my panel of jury. One mam and one sir and they both looked young like in their late teens or in their early twenty. After a quick introduction it was my time to cover up the floor. I was given 5 minutes to perform and I had to perform my best.

I was having cold feets, I felt I was struggling but I took a deep breath and I started. The theme of my act was the relation between I a soldier and his children. How the children longed to meet their father who came back home after a year and what was their reaction.

The act brought a tear in their eye and I got a standing ovation. It was an extraordinary day for me and I made it mine. There were 20 children who came for the audition in the same auditorium as mine. Some were quite brilliant with their themes but some did a massacre of their act in their audition.

After a long wait of about 6 hours it was the time for the result. Out of 20 who had performed the panel had selected 7 out of the 8 places. 1 place was still left. Their selection process was out of my understanding. Some of those who did poor according to me had gained their entry while I and some others who performed phenomenal stood their scared and shaking waiting for the panel to announce the last name. Standing there with my hands in my back I got lost in my own world of thoughts. I was standing in the cricket pitch batting when a bouncer hit my head and I crash down. The panel was still discussing and every extra minute they spent discussing the more my future in here looked bleak to me.

Finally the jury turned their heads towards us. They looked in a dilemma regarding their choice for the last place. That moment I totally lost my patience I was feeling stressed, my heart beat had increased and I could not wait any more. I started to un-zip my bag to take out the water bottle to relieve myself of the stress and my name was called out. The water in my mouth went out of it like a fountain wetting the floor. As I heard my name jumped out of excitement, started laughing and lay on the wet wooden floor out of sheer excitement and joy. I couldn’t believe my ears. It was hard for me to believe I was a student in the prestigious institute. It was the day I won’t ever forget in my life.

It was around 6 in the evening when I got free from NSD. Another 1 hour and I would be home and retire into my bed.

The time to go back home was taking a toll on me. I got down at the metro station 15 minutes late from the time I had estimated and due to long traffic snarls I decided to run back home.

It was around 8pm when I reached the main gate. There was a car standing in the parking lot. I could hear my mom crying.

CROSSROADS

Part-2

It was 6 in the morning when I woke up. The air in my room smelled of revenge and suffocation, there was pain and anger which I could feel and my blood shot eyes were a proof of what I was going through as a stood and watched myself in the mirror fighting my own Pandora of emotions. I had decided what I wanted to do last night when I lay on my bed tossing from side to side. I was angry on Sheila aunty who had once again played her cards.

Few years back:

Me: mom can I join guitar lessons?

Darsh: yes beta u can

Me: thank u mommy when can we go to buy the guitar?

Darsh: we will go tomorrow

Door Bell rings:

Sheila aunty: Hello Darsh how are you?? Muaah Muaah  muaah…

Me: I am good (but my heart says- how can it be good… you just came)

Sheila aunty: Do u know my son is in the cheetah chauhan cricket academy and now he is the wicket keeper of the school. So what is your son planning to do?

My mom: he is going to learn guitar

Sheila aunty: but….

(Mom looking sternly at me. It was her indication that she wanted me to be out of the room.)

Sheila aunty: what are you doing? What will he get by learning a guitar? It’s your son’s future think accordingly

My mom: I guess you are right. I will put him in cricket. After all it is a matter of his life.

Sheila aunty: I guess I should get going now.

Mom: thank u

I heard this conversation as I was eavesdropping on them and I dint talk with my mom for the rest of the day

It was 10 past 7 and I was in the road to my school for the last time before the two months summer break. The shops were still closed and there were groups of school children of different school who were waiting impatiently with their parents for their respective busses to come. Some were wiping the sweat with their handkerchief while others used the sleeves of their shirt. The sweepers were still sweeping the road and the street dogs stood beside them wagging their tail. I was waking and kicking the pebbles which came in my way and my mind was busy in some other thoughts. Though Sheila aunty had played her cards nicely but this time I didn’t want her to win. I wanted her to teach a lesson so that she stops interfering and my wandering mind came up with a plan.

The bell rang and the school was officially closed for the coming two months. I had bunked my classes, sat in the computer lab and surfed the net searching for the admission proposal in the NSD. It was quiet a tough one though but I had a fair chance of clearing it. The Banta walas and the ice cream stalls were still there, mother wiping their children forehead were still there, kids crowding those stalls with their money in their hands were still there and yet again I walked past them. Today I didn’t feel the heat. I was happy with the thought that tomorrow I will be in the place where I belonged.

The excitement in me increased my pace today and I dint touch my water bottle also. I usually took 20-30 minutes to walk home but today I reached in just 15 minutes. The moment I entered I dashed into my room and banged the door completely ignoring my mother words. She called out my name many times but I ignored too. After a few minutes she started banging on the door and asked me of my wellbeing. The bottle of deo rom my dressing table dropped and rolled on the floor of my room and my mother heart sank she started banging the more loudly. I finally unbolted the door and came out. She took a sigh of relief.

Me: mom can u give me lunch? I am very hungry today

Mom: Darsh are you nuts? What was that? Whey didn’t u answer me when I was banging the door? What happened? Is everything all right?

Me: yes mother everything is all right. Vacations have finally started and I am excited for them

Mom: oh so you are excited about your summer camp. Your dad will be happy

Me: yes mom I am excited and saying so I started laughing as it was more of a devil laugh. She didn’t know that some other plans were running in my mind.

I chewed the food and gulped it down my throat as fast as I could. Seeing my odd behaviour she was scared.

I was feeling a bit sleepy so I dozed off to sleep and this scared her even more. She knew I didn’t like to sleep in the day time.

It was around 6:30 in the evening when I woke up. I was feeling fresh and excited. There was a surplus amount of energy gushing through my body which prevented me from having the regular yawning sessions and also putting my alarm to snooze which I did in the morning. I went straight into washroom washed my face and straight away went into the kitchen. My dad who was sitting in the sofa flipping the pages of a magazine suddenly stared at me totally shocked, I waved at him grabbed a sandwich from the kitchen and went into my room.

My room looked as if it was just robbed. School clothes lay in a corner, photocopied notes in the other side, bedsheet kissing the floor from one side and I didn’t knew where the other end was even the study table looked messy. There were empty glasses and water bottle and now the empty sandwich plate lay there too with stripes of maggi tomato sauce in it. I tried finding some space in the floor and reached the study table. It was time for me to write something for tomorrow and so I begin.

The writing continued for 3 hours. My family stared at me as I opened the door. They didn’t spoke a word. My mother started searching the phone number of the doctor and instantly I started laughing.

It was going to be a big day tomorrow. I ate my dinner and went to sleep with a big happy and satisfied smile on my face.

CROSSROADS

Part-1

The summers had come in Delhi. It was the time for the sun to shine in its full glory making the life of people of Delhi a living hell. The more the people cursed him and more it shone and he showed no mercy.

Ten’s and hundered’s of school children hurdled the ice cream stall and the Banta walas to beat the chill after a hectic school day and I could see some of my friends in the crowd too who were calling my name and waving towards me but I ignored and kept on walking ahead. As the sun increased his fury rivers of sweat came down gushing from forehead and arms dripping from my fingers into the mud ground beneath my legs and evaporating as soon as the drop felt the touch of the ground. More drops fell and the result was still the same. I could see the ground smiling on his victory over me.

I stood there in the ground watching the mothers carry their child’s school bag, bringing a chilled water bottle for their kids and also giving them a shade under the umbrella to protect them from the rays which pierced the atmosphere of Delhi. I had something different for myself. My shirt was a bit torn; shoes covered in mud, the broken zip of the bag from where the books and some torn pages peeped out, shirt coming out from my trousers and it didn’t affect me. I started to walk towards my home.

Mother was sitting in the sofa with the ac on. It was her way of beating the heat. She was waiting for her friend who is our neighbour to come for their daily dose of gossip sessions. My mother is a very outgoing woman her daily dose of gossips with Sheila aunty and her weekly doses of kitty party made her at ease. Drinking, smoking made her life easier.  Sheila aunty was more outgoing than my mom. It seemed to that some where there is a face hidden in her makeup and the more I tried to solve her make up puzzle the more I failed.

Sundays were the worst time for me. She would barge in the home and start kissing me on my face before their gossip sessions and my mother found it adorable. I used to dash into the bathroom and scrub my face and I took me almost half an hour to get rid of her make up. The last time I got to know about her son’s achievement was that he went for swimming in the pool but what she dint told my mother was that he pooped in the pool and was never allowed to go in there. This was something I learnt about him from his Facebook profile. I was just rolling on floor laughing.

There was no respite from the heat I was walking from the past 20 minutes. My water bottle was almost empty and I had a long way to walk. I had more important things in my mind than to think about the empty bottle. The summer vacations were starting day and that was my cause of worry. That was a reason of a possible reason of conflict between me and my parents. They wanted me to join a cricket academy as Sheila aunty second son had joined the academy last year and he was the captain of our school cricket team but I had some other plans. I wanted to join NSD.

It was around 3pm when I entered home. Thank god Sheila aunty was not there but I am sure she had left a few minutes back as I could still smell her strong deo. Entering home was quite a relief for me thanks to the minimum temperature my mom had set and the air in the room was very cool.  

My dad was to come around 4pm. One hour more and my fate would be decided…..

CROSSROADS

Prelude

Conflicts are a part of a life which goes inside a person for a lifetime i.e. the conflicts between the mind and the heart to choose between the right and the wrong of a particular event on which his future depends and not only his future but also the future of those associated with him.

This is a story of a 13 year old boy Darsh torn between one such dilemma when it comes on his conflicts with his own mind and heart as well as his parents, the ever nosy neighbour Sheila aunty and her continuous chants about her son doing MBA   in abroad.

Who will win in his battles will it be he or his parents? Will his dream ever come true or it will break? Will this be a sweet or a sour journey? Or once again the nosy neighbour Sheila aunty will drop the bombs and blasts his dreams.

Caught in the tornado of emotions what will the young 13 years old boy life will be in his expedition? Will he make it or will it break

Most importantly what is the significance of the hanging rope….