The reason is simple...
That day cannot be forgotten by any Troublemaker (thats what we would like to call ourselves) as long as he lives. OMG!! Whatte day!!!
2nd May, 2010.
It was the last day of Aatmatrisha '10. The posters were out. The word was out. NBT was going to perform for the 50th and last time. There was gonna be no more trouble after this.
The day started normally enough - most of us turning up late for practice, some of us organising events in AT, the script not yet in order (forget the order, some scenes were not even ready yet!) and yes there was the usual "crisis" which happens to us before an important performance too.. (nope... i'm not gonna talk about the crisis here.. lets save it for another post! ;) ) To add to this already screwed condition, there was a rumour that the "management" is gonna come down hard upon any jokes which seem anti-PESIT (even if its the truth) and that there's a chance that we might be stopped and brought down from the stage if they dont like what they are seeing.
Finally we all got together with just over 2 hours left for the "scheduled" start of our performance (we knew that meant we had atleast 3 - 3.5 hours.. not bad!!) in the tiny band room right next to our traditional adda.
We started off practising slowly and casually. The rumour had polarised us into 2 groups.. one which said.. "Macha, this is our last performance da... We dont want this to be screwed by being asked to get off the stage halfway... Lets tone it down a bit ra..." and the other "Macha... why the f!@# do you care da?? This is our last performance... Lets do the best we can.. Management yenu madakkagalla" This went on along with the scriptwriting and the practice... Time flew... We had just put together all the scripts when we got the news that the mad ads event had started... Our juniors (The Mad-Maniacs) had kick-started the event with their debut AT performance. And we hadn't practised the full script even once!!
Three teams had performed after the juniors. That meant there were jus 2 left! We had moved near one of the side entrances of the auditorium.. were almost going to finish our first practice... A new rumour/truth (we never got to know) came in... The mad ads event was overshooting its scheduled time and the audi had to be emptied early because of 'Jal' performing later that night. This meant that we would get a maximum of 15 minutes to perform. We were stunned! Last performance and 15 minutes???!! Were they kidding us?! Arguments broke out again.. one saying " Macha cut out all the big scenes (which were also our trump cards).. lets do it for 15 minutes" and the other saying " Forget it! If they won't let us perform how we want to, show them the finger!! We are not performing!"
Last team on stage...
We got into a huddle and we made a decision for which we will always be happy... "Dudes... look... This is the last time we are gonna be on that stage. In front of that audience which has cheered for us evry single time we go out there and perform.. we gotta give it back to them by performing as best as we can... Even if the management stops us, lets not worry.. the audience will anyway boo them! But we dont wanna get booed by them!! And thus we decided to go full throttle for the last time on our home turf!! And we celebrated this decision by doing our pre-performance dance ritual..
We had to run all the way to the front entrance of the audi cos thats where we planned to make our "grand entry" from... ;) We stood in front of the doors of the audi..the noise from inside was tremendous.. we knew without looking inside that it was jam-packed!! The last team was performing on stage.. It was NBS.. doing their last scene (which was their trump card)... their scene ended to tumultuous applause and rip-roaring laughter.. usually this would make us nervous sensing that the other team had an upper hand... but not today... In fact we were happy at that scene getting such a good response...
The reason was that we had decided to do what we did best - "spoof". We had decided to spoof the 'trump card' scenes of some of our toughest opponents as a parting tribute to them and the audience...
The last team finished their performance... Co incidentally, it was their last performance too.. They got down from the stage. The MC grabbed the mike and started up his "Wassup P-E-S-I-T???!!" mantra which he had been harping all event long.. (In fact it was since the prvious day!!) and the audience responded (with a loud cheer /boo.) We smiled at each other.. (yes, you guessed it right.... we had a spoof ready for the MC too).. He announced that NBS was the last competing team in the event and thats when it happened....
The grand entry.. :)
We sensed it before we heard it.... the crowd knew it... it had started.. nbt nbt nbt nbt nbt NBT!!! The lights went off...The MC walked towards us and handed the mic to the narratorNBT NBT NBT!! They knew it was coming.. They knew we were next.. And then with a quick nod, all of us sprinted into the darkness of the audi!! The narrator yelling AA Zappak Zuppak Zippakk!!! to confirm to the audience what they already knew. The moment we entered the audi, the noise levels just exploded. This was amazing!! It was so disorientingly amazing.. that we forgot what we had to do as soon as we got on stage.. (we were supposed to stand and strike cool poses on the stage but all we did was jus sit and stare with open mouths at the audience cheering wildly for us) It was surreal.. we felt lik we had gone back 3 years ..our first performance... the leaden feet.. the butterflies in the stomach.. they were back.. BIGTIME!!
They jus cheered and cheered.. we jus stared and stared.. and finally (it had to happen), the narrator spoke and the cheering started again... They were excited and so were we!! (Bigtime!! Even our best actor cold not suppress his amazed smile on stage!) The first few scenes were the intro jokes.. they were lapped up with glee & excitement.. then both of us (we + audience) settled down.. (sober enough to understand the jokes and then cheer ;) ... Now came the trump cards. A scene in which the narrator rattled of a 'shuddha halegannada' dialogue furiously was the first of them... Next came the tribute to our rivals.. First -NBS, Strike one!! Reverse gear (Muthalik lolipops), Strike two!! Midstage madness (LKB)!! Strike three!! It was done! the audience loved it... our rivals themselves enjoyed it...
The spoof didn't end there.. after feeding the audience with some zippako jokes, (for which they heartily yelled HAAKRIYAPPA!! - it became somewhat of a cult! :p), we spoofed the MC, Team Haya, Aeolus and of course our favourite - Team Sanskriti! :) We had also thrown in some PESIT-glorifying scripts jus in case.. which worked quite well.. and before we knew it, we were through to the last script. The scene was completed. The actors returnrd to their places.... The audience were expecting another scene to begin but we knew that it was over... after 3 seconds, the narrator yelled his customary THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU one and all!! The audience cheered and cheered to the point of almost making us (i'm not gonna say cry).. It was the moment which will be cherished by all of us!! We went down on our knees and saluted the crowd which deserved the tag it has - The Best MAD-ADS crowd we've evr seen... Thank you..
Troublemaker (UB)
