My dream of being on prithvi stage

Finally accomplished..well, somewhat...I ve never quite understood what it is about this place which keeps haunting me...

My first brush with Prithvi was 11 years back when I went to get some irish coffee with my family at the prithvi cafe, well yeah Prithivi has always been famous for it (they dnt make it as well anymore).. Few months later I remember watching my first play, 'All the best' at prithvis. It started then, I did not know what it was.. Over the years, I often visited prithvis to watch plays or just hangout at the cafe. The fascination kept growing as I ventured into theatre and started performing at different venue's in the city.. Some of them bigger and more modern. But it was'nt the same, not quite. The feeling of not being on that 'very' stage made me feel like an outsider..Every time i saw a play, I started seeing myself on stage and most of the times I would loose track of the actual play somewhere in the middle..But it hardly mattered.

26th January' 07, first day of Yatri rang utsav. Mr Katare called me over to prithvi's in the morning for our workshop. 9 am in the morning, its deserted. Not a soul in the theatre. I walk in from the back entrance to the stage, there is set from the play staged the previous night and empty seats. AWESOME! I finally am on the prithvi stage and just sit there for an hour alone till Mr Katare joins in. I am an hour before our scheduled time, just to be there alone. I start rambling a monologue from play given by sir. Absolutely magical to say lines, shout, walk around the entire stage and even into the audience seating area, mouthing lines written by Sharad Joshi. The acousitics of the theatre are superb and it sends your voice right back at you. Quite surreal.. I love it! Spent 3 more days after this, reharsing few scenes and reading plays in the mornings.

I rememeber reading once in Mr. Bachchan's interview that, 'it is the smell of studio, lights, greasepaint, morning chai' which keep's the magic of cinema alive and drives me to work day after day'. Well i understand that now, just the idea of reharsing at prithvi's makes me want to do even better work, become a better actor, a better human being. Its a feeling any actor in the world would want to experience. I have tasted blood and i am rearing to go...