Sunday, October 30, 2011

Watching my story come to life.

The award ceremony was great!  I received the certificate and cheque, but the highlight of the programme, for me at least, was the stunning show that the kids from the Parikrma foundation put up.


They started by announcing, "We are going to perform The Story Lady written by Shruthi Rao akka." :)

They were wonderful.  Such happy, bright, enthusiastic children!  It was a fun and imaginative take on my story.  They were true to the story, but adapted it beautifully for the stage.  The props, the costumes, the background music, the songs ... They had everything!  And such a spirited performance, really!

I stood there, immersed in the show, but at one point, I experienced this surreal moment, where I seemed to step back and look at the scene in front of me with a sense of wonder.

These 20-30 children, and their 6-7 teachers have probably spent weeks preparing for this.  They prepared the screenplay, wrote the script, composed songs, set it to tune.  They designed props and elaborate costumes, they cut and pasted and sketched and painted and got it all ready.  They rehearsed the play, they learned their lines, and then they travelled all the way from Hebbal in a big yellow bus to come here and perform.  And here was an illustrious audience, enjoying it, laughing and clapping.

And all this is happening because of a small story written by little ol' me!

It was truly awe-inspiring.  Overwhelming.  I became all emotional and teary-eyed at this point during the show.... The feeling that all this is so much bigger than I am.... not sure if I am making any sense,  but I can't name the feeling myself. I wonder how playwrights feel, and people who have their books turned into movies!  I wonder how J K Rowling feels!

Later, one of the kids came to me and said, "Shruthi Rao akka, your story, akka, very nice akka.  I liked it soooo much, akka!"

Thank you, little Chalapati.  You made my day :)

It was truly a wonderful day because of my family who was with me, S, Puttachi, my parents, aunts, uncles, cousins - so many of them had made it.  And my friends and blog friends who braved the rain to be there.... Thank you so much.

Another lovely thing is that my good friends had won the first and second prizes in the short story for aduts category,  so it was lovely to share the stage with them.  And another great thing was meeting Shashi Deshpande, who wasn't a judge for my category, but who enjoyed the show, and complimented me on the story idea.

A wonderful experience for me.  I'm grateful to Annie Chandy of Unisun, and to Reliance TimeOut.

22 comments:

parijata said...

Congrats Shruti!
May this story be followed by many, many more!

Venkatesha Murthy said...

heartily congratulations and wish you many more happy days like this :)

Radhika said...

Wonderful show indeed Shruthi. I liked the happiness and confidence with which the kids put up the show. I appreciate all the efforts behind it.
Credits to you for weaving such a beautiful story.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Shruthi. I missed the show. When do we all get to read your Story Lady story.

Anonymous said...

Oh, it was awesome Shruthi! I got all emotional too while watching the performance, for the very same reasons! I could understand the phrase "heart swelling with pride" perfectly at that moment! :)

Congrats once again!

ano

Sachin said...

Congrats, Shruti! Really happy for you! May you write many more such gems! You should know that your writing inspires a lot many others to explore their own imagination and creativity to create something new altogether!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! Very proud of you.

CC :) said...

The proud Anon - CC!

Neela said...

Congratulations !
Neela

Aarthi said...

congrats Shruti

AlwaysHappyKya said...

Wow. Must have been an out-of-the-world experience when you see your story being performed with so much vigor on stage!

Bask in the glory Shruti. Congratulations! :)

praneshachar said...

wow simply superb and very happy to know minute details of the programme have wonderful experiences like this come your way in the years to follow. yes its great feeling seeing someone turning a story written into a play live characters and I fully agree lots and lots of time and effort have gone into it. hats off to children of parikrama for making it. Reliance time out keep going its great work. meeting so many people and your whole family be there with you in this great moment with friends super. U made the writing for us who missed it. all the best shruthi in all your future endeavors keep writing i hv no doubts u will reach much much greater heights.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Shruthi. May you [and us from you] have many many more such stories. Brovo!

Jayashree Atte

M S Raghunandan said...

great. i use my privilege to bless you and wish you many many more such moments.

bellur said...

congrats shruthi!
when the book is out, i'll request u : autograph, please!

best wishes
bellur

Slogan Murugan said...

Super :)

Vishnu Kumar said...

Hey, You have a nice story.

Jungle Lodges.

Sanjay M said...

wow Shruthi I really missed it (I knew I would but it was inevitable :( there was something impt else I wouldn't have missed it otherwise )

If there's any video please let us know the link.

Salkantay Trek said...

This is very interesting stories.

An old timer who shut her blog said...

Congrats Shruti! Very proud to be a reader here :) Pls post more often.

Shruthi said...

Thank you all very much!

Radhika, thanks so much for making it :)

Anon, the story will be published in a few months' time. I will let you know when that happens!

Ano, I am touched.

LAK said...

Congratulations, and wish you many more laurels like this! Where can we read the story?
Do you remember the last book in the Malory Towers series---I guess you felt like Darrell! It must be a wonderful feeling--to not only win the prize but to see the story come to life--
Congrats again!

- -