Fantasia Report Two [anecdote]

SMILES AND SURPRISES!

Day-3 and Day-4 of the Pune tour were definitely less stressful than the first two days. After all the hassles and worries of Saturday (the first Fantasia performance), things fell into place more easily and more smoothly; may be due to our growing experience in handling such kinds of crunches, or may be simply, (and this is my contention) it was just the magic of the performance and the smiles on the children's faces that smoothed it all for us...

Day-3:

Sunday was a fun-day! For everybody! The children began their day by playing in the park in Sindh Society, and after lunch, we all set out to Shaniwar Wada to visit the famous fort. The afternoon turned out to be an enjoyable one, where everybody could finally relax a little bit (except Tanu who spent the whole day on the phone- ekdum call centre type!- trying to get everything fixed for the next day's performance) and enjoy a beautiful sunny Sunday in Pune. Games were played, jokes cracked, legs pulled, and the history of the fort was told as well.

On the way back, the children went back to the Sindh Society park to enjoy themselves... In the meantime the famous "surprise" was being prepared! The children on their way back had dinner and were immediately ushered to bed by 8pm since they had to be up by 5am the next day (so we told them) to be fresh for their performance.

While everybody was forced into silence and custody upstairs, the preparations for the "surprise" were going on full swing downstairs. Fairy lights were put up all over the hall, music system set, drapes cavorted the walls, windows and fans, and the table received within it's grip chocolate cakes, chips and drinks!


Tanu went upstairs: "THERE IS A LIMIT TO EVERYTHING! WE TREAT YOU SO NICELY, WE THOUGHT YOU WERE WELL-BEHAVED CHILDREN, AND THAT IS HOW YOU BEHAVE! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID DOWNSTAIRS?! WHO DID THAT??"

Doubts, frowns, worries on foreheads, scare in eyes...

"What Tanu Didi? Some of us did not wash our pla...?"

"NO! THAT'S NOT ABOUT WASHING PLATES! THAT'S SERIOUS! MORE SERIOUS! WHO DID THAT? NOW, GO DOWN AND SEE FOR YOURSELVES! AND QUIET! NOBODY TALKS! JUST GO DOWN!!"

And thus did they all come down, in a line of silence... The lights downstairs were off, till they all came in and the lights and the music were put on screaming "SURPRISE" with all their glee! The children could not believe it! Here it was: THEIR party!!

The music and dance went on till 10:30pm or so (interrupted by the security agents who came thinking it was an indecent teenagers' party going on inside!!) and then it was time to go to bed, for the next performance was awaiting the next day.

Conclusion of Day-3: We all went to bed with smiles on our faces, rhythms in our hearts, and our bodies still moved to the music of the day while sleep dawned on us. As for Tanu, she slept rather soundly I suppose for the "mandap" had been put up, the sound system was on the ground, and the electricity issues had already been sorted out.

Day-4:

Day-4 began very early for all of us. Quick break-fast, and we all rushed to the ground, which was barely 200 metres down the house. In no time, all the preparations started, while the sun was shooing away the left-over cold from the previous night. Soon the children were applying their make-up, getting their stilts fastened, and getting into their costumes, while the ground was slowly filling up with hundreds and hundreds of school children and a rather thick bundle of friends and guests.

By 9:30 it all fell into place, and we were ready to start! The performance went off beautifully! The energy levels of our fantastic performers were not as high as they were on the first performance (well, it was 9am!!), but they were still fantastic on the whole. Pandu really "rocked" the show by giving the best of himself despite the fact that he was sick and exhausted.

On the side of the audience, we saw smiles, faces glaring agape, mouths opened in disbelief of the beauty they were witnessing, claps resounded on the grounds at regular intervals, and by the end of the performance, everybody seemed to go back with a semblance of a dream, a dream that had shades of reality to it...

The second show was over, and it all went off beautifully! The children had again managed to put all of us under a magic spell.

I would like here to thank all the people who made the Pune journey possible: I won't mention any names, so that I don't forget any, but in short, ALL of you who were there, for being there, for believing and making it possible! Thank you for the love, the support and the smiles... :-)

The kids were again ushered onto the bus, heading Goa-wards... And then came the last surprise of the trip: Before heading to Goa, the bus stopped at E-Square on the way, and we all watched "Om Shanti Om", before the bus actually found the Pune-Bangalore highway in the early evening!

For all of us, the past three days have been an intense mix of a variety of emotions. But if there is something we retained, it is to SMILE always... to bring that smile on our faces, and others' faces!

To the troupe: Pune misses you already...



[For more please do check http://www.laboratoryofsmile.splinder.com/ and also check the short docu-video by G. D'Souza on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWfp-MaCTRg ]