Bam Bam Bhole

The society we live in had a programme to celebrate the ongoing Ganapati festival on Saturday. As far as programmes go this was very simple. A drawing competition for the kids, with the theme "Ganesha". A talent show, which had the children of the society performing to various songs, with the youngest performer a two year old with mike fright. And then there was a skit, in which the brat was to be Shiv. The father of Ganesh. The skit was pretty simple as far as skits go. The brat and a girl, playing Parvati were to sit on Mt Kailash, which were two chairs, plastic and red, if you must know. Kartik and Ganesh would squabble about who is bigger and finally Ganesh manages to brown nose both parents by just circling them, while poor Kartikeya goes off on his peacok to circumnavigate the universe. The brat was Shiv. He started off dissing his role by declaiming he would not go nangu in front of everyone. "Dey will laffatme!"
A compromise was arrived at and he would wear a kurta pyjama with an animal print scarf artfully tied around the waist. The moon and the trishul was created with mamma's long forgotten artistic skills put to work with cardboard and foil and golden wrapping paper. The locks and Gangaji were dispensed with, there being no guarantee that the brat would keep them all on his head, after all this is a child I can never get to keep a cap on his head in broiling heat. A rubber snake was hired and wrapped around his neck, and he was draped with every rudraksha mala his grandmother had painstakingly collected. The forehead third eye and symbol made and some eyeliner applied to emphasise his eyes, he was lined up with the rest of his troupe behind the stage in readiness for his cue to go on stage. But would he wait? Nope. he spotted a couple of his pintsizes sitting in the audience and made a dash for them to scare them silly with his snake, an action that saw some of the elderly and faint hearted in the audience vacate the premises in a hurry, leaving a trail of surprised scattered folk in their wake.

When he was finally cajoled to come backstage and wait his cue to go up, he decided to liven up the proceedings by getting into a scrap with the kid who played Ganapati by pulling on his trunk. By the time the ensemble had got onto stage, they were panting for breath and Shivji collapsed on his chair with exhaustion. The dialogues were said. Kartikeya loud and clear. Ganesh muffled through the trunk. Parvati with the hesitation that comes from nervousness. And the poor Peacock and Mouse hung around waiting for their moments of action. Shivji had approximately four dialogues. At the end of his first dialogue he was to go into dhyan. He rapid fired his dialogue off, despite all my misgivings of him not remembering what he needed to say and scrunched up his face into a squashed tomato with concentration. So much that he needed to be kicked in order to say his next dialogue.

I dont know about the rest of the audience, but judging from the response this skit got, it was quite a hit, if hooting laughter is indicative of audience reaction. Today the brat has trotted off to school dressed as Pinocchio with fake nose made from mamma's skin coloured sock stuffed with cotton, about which pappa had many rude things to say, sniggeringly. I hope he says his dialogues well enough today, mamma isnt around to kick him on the shin for a cue.