School Memories: One-Act Play-Eklavya

 

           As I was sitting in my balcony overlooking the golf-course and the vast Arabian Sea almost in a William Wordsworth’s Daffodil kinda moment, vacant and pensive, to be precise, a few fleeting memories rushed past me…… some good old memories of my school days.  Right now at this moment in August 2025, when I am penning it down, I am still wondering does the year 1995 qualify to be called as a ‘Long time ago’? Usually that phrase could make the reader visualise the author as some senior citizen, but hey I am just in my mid 40s...just to make it clear and to avoid imagining me as some good old timer! Let that be my disclaimer notice. 

           So, as in everyone’s lives, the school days are bound to be eventful, no matter how miniscule it is.  I am sure, everyone will have such memories.  Technically speaking a gazillion tera bytes of a mix n match of events!! Might sound a little overkill, but still the memory-size holds good.   

           This story which I intend to narrate here is from the year 1995, when I was in my 9^th Class, St. Albert’s High School, Ernakulam.  The school had celebrated its 100^th year of establishment just three years back i.e, in 1992.  Currently in 2025, the establishment has clocked 133 years of foundation-laying for many a boys n men of the city churning out eminent men including Judges, Policemen, Politicians, Poets, Artists, Story tellers etc. …..however, when it came to their real identity I am sure my seniors as well as successors shall simply quote the title ‘Alberts’ with pride, sugar-coated with a huge amount of simplicity. 

Nevertheless, being an all boys’ school comes with the occasional occupational hazards too and consequently the school was slightly infamous for all the good reasons too….first of all being one of the largest Boys’ only school in the heart of the city of Kochi….followed by its ‘strategic location’ which gave access to nearly all the movie theatres, the nearest one being a triplet named ‘Sarita-Savita-Sangeeta’.  There were three screens in a way it was a multiplex as the new terminology says, for us it was just the names of three ladies!!! Also the other theatres namely, Sridhar where all Hollywood movies were played, Menaka, Padma for all Tamizh movies, Kavita and Shenoy’s theatres.  At present Sridhar theatre does not exist, so is Menaka.  In fact a huge shopping mall was constructed in the location of old Menaka theatre and now its called Penta Menaka.  Also, the little Marine drive with a walkway and lush green grounds etc made the school life quite an ‘interesting one’.  Even though the school had a large campus, and we were expected to be happy with whatever was provided, our honourable predecessors thought otherwise and extended the limits farther (‘further’ at this juncture would be an unquantified word)….and we just followed the suite.  In a way, all the teachers of the school were viewed akin to ‘technicians from a Nuclear reactor’ rather than educators.  The entropy of the universe always increases, aye ?

The year 1995 was a kinda heartbreak-year for many of us since a whole bunch of us found ourselves at the ‘end-of-the-road’ situation since the last school where many of us were studying could not acquire the required license for operating a High-School.  Notwithstanding the efforts put in by the school management and other external political pressure, whether applied or not, the licence was kept at abeyance and eventually denied.  So, in a manner it was a huge heartbreak for us and especially the class 8 boys, those fresh teenagers faced the quintessential question which ideally should have been kept for a later part of life were posed upon us suddenly.  The question being “What next?”.  With no other options, other than to bid goodbye to Don Bosco School, Vaduthala, Kochi, we were made to fend for ourselves. 

 For many of us, St.Albert’s School became the primary option and almost 25 of us opted for the same school.  The school management were flabbergasted with an influx of a large number of students and consequently a separate division was allotted to accommodate all of us.  Along came a few others also from other divisions as well as from other schools.  From the tight n all-round monitored atmosphere of our old school, St.Albert’s gave everyone of us a fresh perspective.  Frankly, it was the society in a microcosm, in its raw format.  Also, interacting with other pupils were an eye opener.  Well I am not, in anywhichways, trying to belittle our erstwhile school, but at that moment the current ‘regime’ was a breath of freedom…..opening up to interactions of various kinds.  The co-curricular activities (official as well as unofficial) included Poetry club, movie discussions, politics, technological advancements upon bicycles, various reflector stickers for (again) bicycles, spare parts (again bicycles), semi-bell bottom pants.  Watching movies also were considered honorary subjects namely, running to Sridhar theatre for First Day First Shows….where all of us held our breath when Pierce Brosnan did the Bungee Jump from Arkangel Weapon Facility dam in Golden Eye (not gonna discuss Famke Jansen’s death hold with her thighs as Xenia Onatopp), laughing out loud when Batman asked Robin “What’s the R stands for ?” pointing at the insignia on his chest and me and my buddy Jose Samson in unison said “Rrrrõbbinn”, obviously with the Malayali-fied English accent but the actor pronounced it was “Zhhaaabin” in Batman & Robin, jaws hitting the floor when Demi Moore did an…ahem….in Disclosure etc. etc. etc. Well, damn, the school days all of a sudden became colourful with Dolby stereo! 

 By the month of September- October there was a call for auditions.  Because, the Sub-District School Arts Festival was being scheduled in the coming months.  The auditions were for One-Act Play or a short drama.  I remember reading the notification in the school notice board but wasn’t interested much.  There was a concrete reason for that too because since 1989 onwards I was part of the drama team at various schools.  I clearly remember acting in the same role in 1989 and 1990, as one of the three-kings from the Bible.  Maybe I fit in the billet akin to that East African persona perfectly and apparently never requiring any concealer powder or similar skin lightening make-up applications! 1993 I was playing another student in a musical drama “Do Re Mi” from Sounds of Music, rest of the years I was in one or the other entertainment programs. 

 But 1995, had something very unique for me….something which made my 9^th class brain think that ‘I was made for this role’, with a great amount of self-persuasion, of course.  However, as mentioned earlier I was not interested or rather chose not to poke my head into the practicing room for this drama.  But my classmate Mr. Vipin Atley, who is currently one of the busiest movie directors in Malayalam, had another plans.  In fact, he had all the qualities for a movie director then and he was desperately searching for a befitting boy to play the role of ‘Eklavya’, a tragic character from the Hindu epic Mahabharata.  He kept pestering me and eventually asked me to be there in the practice room.  Well…I obliged, in kind. 

 Obviously, I think Vipin overlooked me because in the fable, Eklavya was a native boy, who was born and brought up in the jungles, learned and horned his skills in warfare, especially archery, by secretly deploying the ‘watch-n-learn’ method from the great guru Dronacharya.  Apparently Eklavya should be kinda lean-mean machine…..and I was a chubby guy who weighed over some 60+ kilos for a 15-16 year old boy.  In short, Eklavya was not obese!!!  But some kind of curiosity made me go and watch the rehearsal sessions for this one-act play.  As the days passed by, the characters and appropriate boys for the role were selected except Eklavya.  The acting coach-cum-director.  Sincere apologies I am not clearly remembering his name, but I remember his face.  If I am not mistaken his name was Shri. Andiyappan and he was working in the Telephones.  Anyways, the coach asked me to pitch in and narrate the dialogues till the time they find an appropriate guy for the role. 

 So, I started reading the dialogues in between the act, representing Eklavya.  Initially, it was a plain-toned narration and as ’n’ when time passed my reading style unknowingly changed.  The delivery of dialogues became more personal to me, as I started to feel the agony and deep rooted pain of the character in the entire act.  Why he was being pulled back everytime? why he was chosen to be sacrificed? why he couldn’t show up for himself? Why him? Why not the other characters? Why not Yudhishtira or Bhima or Arjuna or Nakul or Sahadev?.....why ? Why ? WHY? Why Eklavya should back down? In my entire experience on stage, this became the most engaging event….or I thought so!  And one fine day, the School Headmaster arrived to check the progress.  Well, there was no Eklavya, but me: the makeshift character. 

 The Headmaster, Shri. Vimson, was a no-nonsense man…..a rough n tough person and also a very learned man who conducted his English classes filled with engaging monologues, comedy and quintessential beating with his trademark ‘cane’ which landed with a specific force exactly on the base of the students’ butt muscles!!  Kinda precision which (in later years) Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer projected on clay as well as grass courts! Discipline ensues…..!  So when The Headmaster arrived the acting coach and associated Teacher-in-Charge explained the situation they were in regarding the absence of the main character.  I think (I might be wrong), they were whispering something to him and then final verdict came from him, in a purely Hollywood fashion, “Let’s see what the boy has got!”.  Voila !!! and both the coach and Teacher-in-Charge smiled at me, apparently giving me a go-ahead for the role of Eklavya. 

For the first time, I was afoot, shed the dialogue papers, and I could see all the other boys were ready, brimming with confidence and they never needed the prompting of dialogues too! In a matter of 15 to 20 minutes or so the presentation was over.  Well…. we presented without much hassle.  The Headmaster also proved to be a man with a penchant for theatre where he also provided his valuable insights in respect of body language, breathing patterns, eye contacts, requisite mannerisms etc. providing us a total master-class! In today’s terminology.  So…..by the end of the session I became the lead character…..technically a downdate, but an illuminating one.  We boys had a re-approach on the entire set up and the practice sessions became more and more entertaining one. 

The storyline of our one-act play was a bit revolutionary in its set up.  In the epic Mahabharata, believed to be written by Ved Vyas, a revered sage, Ekalavya’s representation was a shrewd reminder of how the power hungry politics could manipulate things and people for selfish gains.  The intertwining paradoxes of Duty and Righteousness, free will and fate, the temporariness of Life and Power, the tussle between the morality and immorality etc. were explained within its capacity in this epic consisting around a hundred thousand couplets.  Also, the epic as we read it today, was compiled from various versions of the story over a period of 50 years spanning from early 1900s to the mid ‘60s.  One should remember that before this ‘compilation’ activity these couplets were being circulated through sermons, folk songs and plays, celebrations etc, thereby becoming an augmenting base for the religion of Hinduism.  On compilation, the edition was printed and apparently distributed all over the world therefore unifying the storyline.  The presentation of the epic was so elaborate that people started believing its narratives and almost 95% of the readers assumed that this was just another bunch of good guys vs bad guys story….can’t blame them either. 

It is observed that the original author Sage Ved Vyas had found himself in a huge dilemma in between the couplets as who was right and wrong.  The human thought process and consciousness works in a mysterious pattern in all probability nullifying predictable patterns.  Because, unknown to the compilers-cum-authors, the book triggered a thought process where people started to classify the Indian society en masse, already underlining the existing crisis, or in other words a human-degradation program, called Caste system.  Our character Eklavya also could fit perfectly within this system!!!

 So, in our one-act play the narrative a ‘What if?’ situation was injected into the lead character.  Adapted from a Malayalam novel of the same name ‘Ekalavya’, as we were told.  So the question was, what if, Eklavya had his own opinion? And while drafting out an Interim Confidential Report upon the boy, why did the Chief Trainer cum Commandant Dronacharya sought his right Thumb as a severance for his supposedly ‘online’ classes?  Was it a thought whether Eklavya, a tribesman was equal in his talents as the royalty Arjuna?  If he were immensely talented as equal as Arjuna in his fighting capabilities wouldn’t that set a narrative that anybody could learn notwithstanding their social status or conditions or skin colour or mental status?  Or even if a person of lower social status or in any status, could turn blind because of his faith?  Or were he easily manipulated by people of higher social status?  A lot of mind stirring queries were raised in the act.  Apparently, these questions became the key points in our discussions and maybe we brushed up the reasons for birth of movements like naxalism, piracy etc. 

So, finally the character in our one-act play succumbs to the directives (or request with strictly no RSVP) of guru Dronacharya.  But he does have his reservations about the weird request and apparently questions every single character in the play and finally cuts his thumb and presents it to guru Dronacharya.  Anyways, the dress rehearsals of the play were carried out on a Friday and the competition was on come Monday.  The team was performing well within the boundaries of the practice room.  The costumes were taken on rent.  Apparently due to the envisaged size of the main character Eklavya was ‘Medium’ and mine was ‘Extra Large’, the fitting became a cause of concern.  The Director had an idea, to wear it slightly above my waist…..sounds good and did a trial and as expected it fitted well ……..matter closed!  Come Monday morning we reached the venue at around 9 o’clock.  It was within the city at another Government School, Edapally. 

 Now talking about the team, except me and Vipin, rest all were newbies on the stage.  That one issue was pointed out by the boys themselves and a calculated risk was taken by the administration.  Whatever it is shall be dealt with in situ. 

 As we were on the chair, one by one, for make-up and special effects, one thing which I clearly remembered was that, even though it was a Monday morning, the Director who doubled up as the Make-up artist, was already in ‘high spirits’!!!  The smell of some hardcore liquor filled up the nostrils while he was applying make-up on me.  And on one corner of the room two more staff from the school were making a prosthetic!!! Do remember that in the story Eklavya, he had to sever his right thumb and present it to Dronacharya as a token of his pact!   So, the prosthetic for the thumb was being made of wet paper as the inner casing and covered with soaked Pappadams, painted it with some brown shade matching my skin tone !!!! For visual effects, a small plastic bubble of red-dye with water was filled and placed inside the casing so that it creates the required visual impact for blood.  So when the time comes to enact I have to act like taking an arrow, show like I was cutting my thumb, squeeze the prosthetic, let the red dye ooze out, place it on a ) already positioned leaf on the floor, and present it to Dronacharya.  Voila !!!!

By around 11 we were ready.  One more final round of dry run, dress check and we were good to go.  We could hear the voices of other teams’ performances and it did make the already on-flight butterflies in our tummies enter into heavy turbulence!!! Tension was rising….mouths running dry….urinal bladders suddenly started to indicate ‘full capacity’ signals….heart beats on an overdrive….beads of sweat appearing on everyone’s forehead!!!!!....well the game is about to be started.  And around 12 our team was called up.  Our guy who was playing the role of Bhima, Mr. Venkitesh, who was a childhood friend of mine standing six feet two with a heavy set was at the epitome of tension….poor Venku!

 As the act started, everything went well, but the tension within Yudhisthira and Bhima had the best of them, eventually mis-positioning themselves on the stage.  Consequently, when Dronacharya was expecting Bhima on his left found Yudhishtira instead!! Chaos ensued……!!! Dronacharya panicked and eventually did a 180 degree turn making the situation more chaotic.  The supposedly tough guys, Yudhisthira and Bhima who were instructed to placed their hands on hips in a warrior’s pose let their guard down and was sweating profusely, eventually forgetting their cue dialogue. 

Then came Eklavya’s sentimental dialogue delivery where I had to kneel down and cut my thumb and other actions as mentioned earlier.  The quiver of Eklavya had a malfunction and when I pulled out an arrow it missed the crucial part i.e, the arrow head itself!!!  Hey, anyway it’s a make belief aye? So I enacted the cutting of thumb, keeping the prosthetic which was concealed with glue in my right palm, as I was delivering the dialogue along with the cutting action, the Pappadam-prosthetic fell down! I quickly grabbed it with an “Aaargghhhh!” voice showing the pain of severing the thumb.  Now, I picked up the thumb and squeezed it but instead of red-dye oozing out, the prosthetic itself failed to function.  Remember in the previous paragraph I had mentioned about mouth drying? along with that the soaked pappadams also dried up! This quick dry event closed the small hole within the prosthetic thumb through which the red-dye was supposed to splatter.  On a split second damage control I squeezed the thumb and a stream of red dye splattered in the wrong direction!  Instead of me it fell on Dronacharya’s dress !!! Obviously the quick reaction from anyone would be to jump….and so did Dronacharya! While all these ‘string of unforeseen eventualities’ were happening I thought I heard muffled laughs from the audience….or did I ???

Somehow, the act was completed and when we all were coming out to the backstage our teachers and the director was laughing out to the core.  The typical ROFLMAO type! Well…we also couldn’t help to join with a fake smile, the same one when one does in being caught offguard.  While debriefing, the Director pointed out the mistakes from the point of view of a spectator.  Obviously, the positional shift of Bhima and Yudhishtira were unnoticed, neither did the pappadam fiasco nor its red-dye splattering.  The one thing which stood out during all these was the frock (almost a micro-mini skirt) of Ekalavya which was one size smaller and had to be worn above my waist level.  And when I had to kneel for cutting my thumb, my underwear was exposed which made the audience burst into a laughter!  

Murphy and all his relatives were eventually having a day out on our drama finale…indeed.  So, technically speaking, the tribal character was wearing an underwear which was exposed eventually nullifying his emotional and sentimental questions towards the other characters!  Silly audience and their priorities…..!  Well, after the quick debrief, we were provided lunch and everything was forgotten by the sight of food.  We kept aside our vagaries and thoughts on failures and focussed on our food.  Well, Sambar, Rice and some curries do have an amazing healing capabilities. 

As years passed by, friends chose to move on different paths, the downdating occasions kept happening in life, Murphy also had a huge role to play, tragedies ensued and in later years they all proved to be real comedies and the cycle continues.  People still read the epic, believes it is still a good guys’ winning over the bad guys.  Eklavya’s legacy continued and all his future versions kept on severing their thumbs…once again the cycle continues. 

 

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