My daughter's summer holiday is going to end soon which reminds me of my very own summer break when i was a little girl.I used to hang out with my cousins over our Aunt's house(my mom's eldest sis) almost everyday(no coloring,no playing in the computer,no summer school).We had so many joyful,wonderful and fun-filled holidays but one summer is very fresh in my memory and close to my heart which never fails to make an appearance whenever or whoever asks about my childhood.That is the summer when we cousins staged a play all by ourselves.
It all started one fine Saturday afternoon even way before the holiday starts.Our Aunt used to tell us so many stories.On that day she was telling the stories from Thiruvilayadal movie.We were so fascinated by it and decided to bring it on the stage.Our aunt advised us to pick one story up from the entire movie and go for it so we decided on 'Gnanappazam' episode.Oldest one in the group is my cousin Priya(12 yrs) who took charge of dialogue writing .Started saving our pocket money(10 paise/day) to buy make up supplies and refreshments for the audience.We decided to start the rehearsal once the holiday starts.
The holiday came along and we decided on our cast for the play and everyone agreed to memorize the dialogues.we gathered everyday in the terrace(12'o clock noon... heat never bothered us anyway!!! ) for the dialogue practice.couple of days went without a problem then one of my cousin(Gokul (9 yrs) who agreed to be as lord Ganesha) wanted out because it was hard for him to memorize the dialogues.Another cousin(ram 10yrs as lord Muruga) didn't like to be dressed as a 'palani aandi' so wanted out too. My sis Nithi wanted her share of saved money back because she felt that she didn't have any important role.Our cast of the dream play was drifting apart in front of our eyes but we did't want to give up so turned the play idea into a Annual day function.planned one Tamil drama,one English drama from our non-detail text book,one classical dance and one folk dance.Decided to start the function with me(10 yrs old) and my brother Senthil(11 yrs old)posing as lord Shiva and Parvathi(didn't want to disappoint our Aunt after all).
Since my Uncle had a printing press decided to make cardboard crowns and jewels.Our elder cousins(in their 20's) agreed to help.Got the costumes from my grand ma(Mother's mother).Another cousin(Vishnu 12 yrs) agreed to help with the stage props(he will open and close the screen from the top of the door).Me and My sis(Nithya 8 yrs) took care of the choreography. Both My brother and my cousin Priya were the protagonist in the Tamil play as well as in the English play.We were given some supporting characters because we needed so much time for the dance practice.Folk dance were performed by the group of me,my sis and my another cousin(Usha devi 9 yrs old).
It all started one fine Saturday afternoon even way before the holiday starts.Our Aunt used to tell us so many stories.On that day she was telling the stories from Thiruvilayadal movie.We were so fascinated by it and decided to bring it on the stage.Our aunt advised us to pick one story up from the entire movie and go for it so we decided on 'Gnanappazam' episode.Oldest one in the group is my cousin Priya(12 yrs) who took charge of dialogue writing .Started saving our pocket money(10 paise/day) to buy make up supplies and refreshments for the audience.We decided to start the rehearsal once the holiday starts.
The holiday came along and we decided on our cast for the play and everyone agreed to memorize the dialogues.we gathered everyday in the terrace(12'o clock noon... heat never bothered us anyway!!! ) for the dialogue practice.couple of days went without a problem then one of my cousin(Gokul (9 yrs) who agreed to be as lord Ganesha) wanted out because it was hard for him to memorize the dialogues.Another cousin(ram 10yrs as lord Muruga) didn't like to be dressed as a 'palani aandi' so wanted out too. My sis Nithi wanted her share of saved money back because she felt that she didn't have any important role.Our cast of the dream play was drifting apart in front of our eyes but we did't want to give up so turned the play idea into a Annual day function.planned one Tamil drama,one English drama from our non-detail text book,one classical dance and one folk dance.Decided to start the function with me(10 yrs old) and my brother Senthil(11 yrs old)posing as lord Shiva and Parvathi(didn't want to disappoint our Aunt after all).
Since my Uncle had a printing press decided to make cardboard crowns and jewels.Our elder cousins(in their 20's) agreed to help.Got the costumes from my grand ma(Mother's mother).Another cousin(Vishnu 12 yrs) agreed to help with the stage props(he will open and close the screen from the top of the door).Me and My sis(Nithya 8 yrs) took care of the choreography. Both My brother and my cousin Priya were the protagonist in the Tamil play as well as in the English play.We were given some supporting characters because we needed so much time for the dance practice.Folk dance were performed by the group of me,my sis and my another cousin(Usha devi 9 yrs old).
My mother has 4 sisters.Everybody used to gather in my Aunts house more often except my youngest aunt who lived with her mother-in-law.So made two special invitations(got the model invitation from my uncle's press and filled it out with our own words) one for my aunt's mother in law(she likes it when everything was done in a formal way).Another invitation is for my mother's aunt(thought they were so important and respectable people so wanted to invite them formally).Me and Priya invited them in person and hoped they would show up.My another uncle promised us to get the flowers from the wholesale market and my aunts(my mom's 2nd sis) made a garland with it.
Half of our hard earned (saved) money spent on make up and some for the flowers.we gave the rest of the money(may be Rs 5) to my aunt and requested to make tea for everyone. We even promised to pay the rest in future.When everything was going well as per planned surprise came in the form of my another cousin(Anitha 8 yrs old).She was visiting our town for the holidays and got impressed with our little plan. she decided to perform a solo song which she performed in her school.
Finally the D day had come. our Aunt's living room was filled with the audience(uncles,aunts,grandma,grandpa,little tot cousins and some of the workers from the printing press) even my youngest aunt and Honorable guests were there.Our program mes started as we planned.All my Aunts were busy. some of them were making dinner(yes my Aunt made dinner for refreshments) for everyone and some of them were helping with our costumes in the backstage(the balcony).I am not sure whether they understand our dialogues or not because scene one took place in the living room(stage) and scene two took place in the balcony.we had sung our songs and danced(we had a tape recorder but didn't bother to get a cassette).In spite of all these the audience seemed to enjoyed it a whole lot.I vaguely remember that some of them were even suggesting to bring a photographer.we never showed any interest in taking pictures or recording the event.we just wanted to execute whatever we rehearsed and impress everyone. Surely we enjoyed the every moment of it. When we were in our adulthood we took another attempt at it as a sequence with out little cousins but the essence of magic is missing....never happened.
No one ever discouraged us for anything.Our eldest Aunt was our pillar of support.She gracefully supplied us everything the time,space,ideas and loads of encouragement.Now all of my cousins are living in different parts of the world but whenever we meet we never fail to remember these golden days.we all shared this memory to our life partner and now with our kids with out fail.They just listened it as one of the story from the book because they only knew my cousins from the pictures of the Facebook wall.Here all of us cousins sitting in our living room,hoping and dreaming that....One day our kids will repeat the same scenario which we did two decades ago....
