from Aishwarya

"Are u sure u know the route to the place? " asked my friend shweta . well frankly speaking.. i just thot we could get to mandeveli and find out. And you know the funniest thing? we were like 2 minutes away from the studyo when she asked me that question!!! but i didnt know that. (very smartly) i asked her to go in the opposite direction .. which led to a lot of mixups, tense phonecalls... confusion... and mounting anger on her part(cuz she was late for her class). and we landed up at park sheraton...! ( do NOT ask me how tht happend !!). so .. FINAALLLLLYYY i reached studyo. hurried up the stairs with krithika right behind .. (in the process of helping me get to the place she ended up being late herself. )
and then our first session began..........you know how it starts.. the usual round of intros.. the polite yet conscious smiles.. yada yada. but my favourite part was when we had to talk about a story( any story) that we were really passionate about..and half way through the current went off... for me tht was the best part. it was more of a challenge to convince everyone ur story was the the most brilliant.. wen all u have is just ur voice.. and i remember how disconnected i felt because i couldnt use my eyes to connect with the audience.but i loved the whole experience ... it had a magical feel to it.
In every session.. i always ALWAYS leant something more about myself as a person and as an actress.. it was a journey of self discovery. yes there were periods when i would get totally frusterated ,annoyed,embarrassed ...and every other emotion known to mankind.. but it was all a part of the process.. that helped me grow as a person. there were days when i would feel like total crap and we had to do some of the exercises.. and i would do them so pathetically( i would be CRINGING inside) tht after tht i would hesitate to do the next one. and it was after a few of those painful sessions (were i remember sometimes i felt so awful that i wasnt even able to do the exercise) i realized tht the reason i felt that way was because i wasnt involved in the process of telling the story..the minute i was involved ... it was brilliant. i could actually picture the characters... the situation.. everything. thts wen i had the most fun.a lot of the things tht i learnt at sessions.. really hit home only when i SAW a performance..thts when i REALLY got what was being said ..its like a light bulb would go off in my head...!!
i remember when we went to "mahadevbhai".. it was the story of the freedom struggle told from the perspective of gandhi's seceratary mahadevbhai desai.this was a solo performance by jaimini pathak who is shown as an aspiring actor with a connection to mahadevbhai through his grand uncle ,and his journey of discovering more about mahadevbhai and gandhiji through conversations with his grandfather. The whole thing was brilliantly done and was extremely entertaining.frankly tht was not at all what i expected.. the minute i heard" freedom struggle" "gandhiji" my enthusiasm level underwent a SLIGHT dip.. and images of boring history lessons.. were i would be TRYING very hard NOT to sleep..floated through my mind..and then i consoled myself saying.. " ok. maybe it wont be boring.. just very serious and intense. " so there i was preparing myself for some intense and serious drama..but thts where i was wrong... History ACTUALLY came alive. gandhiji was no more just a part of " chapter 5: The non co-operation movement " , he was like any other person with feelings, emotions and mannerisms...i can never forget the part where mahadevbhai dies ...and gandhiji's reaction to it. my god.. the way jaimini pathak showed the sadness , the pain and loss using his eyes..i swear i actually got goosebumps.. and ching ! a lightbulb went of in my head.. and thts when it really hit me how totally important ur eyes are to show the emotion... (yes yes.. this was something yog kept telling us repeatedly from the beginning..i knew it .. but i didnt really KNOW until i actually saw a performance.. get it? ) . there were a lot of enlightening moments like those while watching the act ! :D the whole thing made such an impact on me.... that i couldnt STOP thinking about the act.. for the next 2 days my mind would just NOT let go .. i would keep playing and replaying everything i saw . ..it would actually creep into my dreams..and sometimes it was during those times tht one of my more "enlightening " moments would strike !
Every session.. had something to offer. the entire course is designed with a lot of thought and care..there was ALWAYS a reason for doing the exercises we did.. and what i really loved was the fact that yog really encouraged us to question. to think... to find out the how's and the why's and not to just accept things blindly . we all tend to accept things as they are without really THINKING about it or questioning it.I loved every minute of the last 2 months..infact it feels really weird that i dont have sessions anymore...i remember the way i felt on the last session. .. there was an air of finality about the whole thing.. like all of us had started out on the same path .. and now that journey has ended and we have come to the fork in the road..and now it was upto us to choose the right path "