Place - Mumbai, India
Chapter I – The Actor
We did not have money. My mother wanted to see her son perform on stage. The only opportunity was: school annual function. The most common performance of each class was: group dance. Each participant had to rent a costume for the day of function. There were two issues. One, I never had money to rent a costume. Another, I did not have any talent for dance.
My Dad is an actor. He is not into big leagues. He gets to play small character roles for big screen and small screen. Work is never regular. I mentioned this to explain the scarcity of money and one more thing.
An important task of Dad’s daily routine is rehearsing in front of a mirror. I have watched him doing this every day since I was little. All his dialogues get imprinted in my memory. While I was in fourth grade it was announced that we will have a mono acting competition in school. I participated and enacted one of Dad’s character roles. First prize winner was mentioned in the school magazine. Mom was proud to see my picture in the magazine.
Still, she had not seen me on stage. This changed when I was in eighth grade. Our Hindi language teacher was searching for someone to play a North Indian guy in a play for school annual day. My last name helped her to locate me. She called. I told her all about me. She asked if my Dad would help to write dialogues for my part. I had only one answer, yes.
Costume was not a problem this time. I could wear Dad’s kurta & dhoti. They are traditional dress of Indians. My character was comedic. The audience laughed hardest when I was on stage. The audience was not visible. There was compete darkness in front of me. I could only hear them laugh. Somewhere in the darkness Mom may have chosen to cry instead. Tears of happiness.
I was popular in school after that. In ninth grade I again acted in a play. This time no dialogue was given to me. Still my character was central to the story. I was not happy with not having any dialogues. The audience still loved my performance. Applause was the proof.
In college I lost in the crowd. Acting never occurred to me. One mimicry competition caught my interest. They selected me for the final round performance. I decided to use several voices. I did not practice much. On stage I got confused. I could not remember all the characters I had decided to play. Only one voice sounded genuine. It was a disaster. Somehow I managed to finish the act. Never tried again in following years.
Four years ago, during second year of my masters program I had another opportunity. As a part of Organizational Behavior project our class decided to publish a book. The book was a collection of success stories of selected entrepreneurs. We decided there should be a skit to entertain the audience on the day of book launch. I volunteered. An important character was given to me. I am fat and I look old. The character description said it has to be me. I was happy to play the part.
The only one to use a costume in this skit separated me from the rest. I was proverbial black sheep. The costume was white shirt and white trousers. That is what politicians, old business men and old timers with money wear in India. I was playing a businessman. That one skit made me a known face in the class.
I have seen Dad’s struggle. He is against me pursuing acting as a career. I am a coward. Maybe I am not. My plan is to build assets which give me consistent income. Once that is done I will pursue this passion of mine.
Chapter II – The Public Speaker
I don’t remember the grade. We had an elocution competition in school. The topic given was Mahatma Gandhi. Computers and internet had not taken over India at that time (only rich had them). To do the research I did not have access to any book.
A neighbor wrote a speech for me. I tried to by-heart the speech. On the competition day I forgot my speech on stage. I failed.
During college someone informed me about a non-profit institution giving computer lessons for free. I was excited to join to learn the basics.
There was a function held on Independence Day in that institution. They asked if someone wants to sing or something. I volunteered. I sang on top of my voice. People had to bear with me till I finished with my song. They were polite on my face.
Then they asked if someone wants to give a speech. I volunteered again. I had not prepared any speech. I was not aware if there was to be one. I just took the microphone and spoke for around three or four minutes. A good round of applause greeted me at the end of my speech.
In India an MBA program mostly has Wikipedia search, preparing PowerPoint presentation, delivering it to the audience as projects and theoretical exams. I loved the delivery part of presentation. After most of my presentations people came to me to say I did well. A big round of applause was directed towards me several times.
I realized. There is a decent public speaker in me. That is one of my passions. I am not using it actively. But in future it will be the backbone of my success.
Chapter III – The Salesman
I was desperate to land a job. I was pursuing my bachelor’s degree. I had my parents and myself to feed. The problem was my college took my morning and afternoon. Lectures and lab work left me with no time during the day.
I was aiming for international contact centers since they paid good money. Also I could work at night. But, my spoken English was not up to the mark.
I started reading fiction. Started speaking to myself. I still love to have conversations with myself. That way the performer and judge in me work at the same time.
A small contact center selected me. I spent 10 hours at work and around six hours at college. Travelling took additional couple of hours. I slept only three to four hours a day to living a Zombie life.
This is where I learned art of selling. I was good with speaking to people over the phone. The job was to sell Sprint contracts to people in United States. I was doing well. My pseudo name was Jimmy Rego. Switched jobs after six months. New job made me sell Dish Network contracts.
I finished with college. Decent income made me stick to BPO sector where I worked with few MNCs. In my entire BPO career I worked for US, UK and Australian processes. After realizing that am not heading towards anything, I got an admission in a prestigious business school. I pursued Masters in Marketing Management as a part timer. It was the time to say goodbye to contact centers.
Now was the time to experiment. I did some menial jobs. Experimented with direct sales jobs. Last I started a digital marketing start up which did not do great. I and my partner decided to close it down.
Talking to people and closing a sale makes me feel good. I don’t see doing only that for entire life. But, I found that is also one of things I like.
Chapter IV – The Writer
Tenth grade is considered to be very serious in India. Everyone behaves like it is life and death. Our school had a rule. Students in tenth grade were not allowed to attend school annual function. Yes, it is strange.
One day I was just roaming around in school during tenth grade. I was called by a teacher in the office. She handed me a prize for standing first in an essay competition. I would have felt great if that was given in a public function. Still it felt good. That was the first sign that I can write good.
I mentioned about a project in my master’s earlier. I transcribed an interview recording of one of the entrepreneurs. Couple of days before finalizing the content of the book I was given a responsibility to write one of the stories. It was almost impossible for me.
I completed writing the story in one night. Unfortunately, the entrepreneur did not make it to the final list of included stories. My friends liked the story written by me.
I was introduced to a social website called Quora. I loved it. Started writing there and got some recognition. Felt great. Then I stopped writing for a year.
Now Steemit has brought me back to writing. Few steemers appreciated my writing. One successful one even said I write better than him. That lifted my spirit.
This is the story of me finding my passion for writing.
This is me saying Hi to you.
Chapter V – The End?
P. S, - I have experimented with the presentation of the story. I hope you find the style new and refreshing. If not please do inform me. Purposely I have not concluded the story or aligned it. My idea was to give it a raw feeling. I will be happy to receive your feedback, positive or negative, in comments. Thanks for reading.
Hey man. Great that steemit has re inspired your passion. I especially liked the story when you said "I am fat and I look old. The character description said it has to be me. I was happy to play the part."
Nice that you can have some humor about yourself :)
Welcome to steemit. Hope we can get to know each other over the next few. I have never been to India but hope to visit one day soon.
Welcome to Mumbai. Thank you for reading my post. If I get a little success here I will create posts full of humor and motivation. Actually that was my niche in Quora. I hope for the best. You are now on my list of most helpful members of Steemit. Wish you great health and success
The new style is indeed pretty nice. Wicked read, keep on posting more stuff like this!
Thanks a lot. Will surely do.
Great job @dev I upvoted you! Thanks for supporting me on my post as well. We have to stick together to become whales on here!
You are my first friend on Steemit. We will indeed stick together. Just make sure you don't forget your Indian friend called Dev :)