Page 13 - THE SUNSHINE IN MY COURTYARD FLIP

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The Sarawsati Puja is one of the most popular festivals among teens. Many committees erect
Pandals, collect contributions and do the Puja. The evidence owns with a big loudspeaker blaring
film songs. Yet there are clubs where they organize competitions on the eve. The Matri Asram
committee is also one of them in our locality. In my final year of schooling, I had become a
member of that club. Apart from the Puja, there was a function to be held in the evening. There
would be record dances and singing. I decided to try out a song. The entire afternoon, I laboured at
rehearsing the song at the back of the Pandal. I have no good voice, no knowledge of tunes and
beats. Yet no one pointed out my weaknesses or helped to prevent me from the incoming disaster.
The programme started at the appointed time in the evening. There were one or two record dances
and then singing. I was perhaps the last on the list. Then my name was announced by the anchor. I
got up to the stage. It was my first stage performance. Finally I took the microphone and started
singing. I had pronounced the first line when the power went out. There was complete darkness.
There was confusion. There was a loud noise form the audience. In the confusion it was long
before the audience dispersed and I left the stage. Then the lights came back. It was already in the
audience. But when the lights came, I found it hard to face the audience in the harsh light.
Everyone was looking at me. The situation was so embarrassing that I had to leave the place and
probably that was my last appearance on the stage for the next ten years. Until very now I hated
stage after that incident. It became a nightmare for me. I realized what it was felt when people on
the stage are welcomed with tomatoes or rotten eggs.