In the beginning Zohaib said let there be a blog and so it was...

Maybe it's the hunger. Maybe it's the hangover or most probably its a combination of both but for whatever reason I'm back to blogging.

A while back I lifted my holier-than-thou hatred for facebook and friendster and (re)made an account on each (Myspace is still a no-no). Boy did I feel dirty. And now this...

I could jump right into whatever has been happening in the last few months and be done before lunch is over and the cricket continues (WE MIGHT ACTUALLY WIN THIS ONE PEOPLE!) but I think I'll take it slowly. For today's topic I'll talk about Old Saybrook.

For those of you who don't know, or really couldn't give a rat's ass to try and remember, I was in a play which ended two weeks back, but I'll pretend it was yesterday so as it make this entry a tad more emotional.

It started a few months back when on my few days in college I was yet again lost trying to get from class to class. And I saw a pink poster hidden in between all the attractive ones as if the person who had put it up on the wall was really trying their best to make sure noone knew what they were upto. Still I chose to read it in defiance being the rebel I am. It turned out they were holding auditions for a play. "Ehh" I thought "Whats the harm in auditioning?" so I dragged Gunjan along with me for moral support (getit?).

So whoever was supposed to be seeing us was running later than late and so we waited outside LT1. Waiting to see who would go in. At last Wai Min arrived. Luckily she was the only one who showed up. And I wondered "How good could a play be for which only two people are auditioning?". Even then I sucked pretty badly and was told by her to come back the next day when the directors would arrive. She being so nice and all was a bit reluctant to tell us how we had actually done so we left it at that.

Next day as I walked in I saw this time there would be two other people auditioning and eventhough there were three parts available I still felt a bit nervous. Here I saw Chi Ho and Nigesh for the first time and boy did they look scary!

As we got up on stage Chi Ho said in his best serious tone "Alright we aren't looking for professionals and we just wanna see if you guys are capable of reading it out loudly and clearly". At first his tone scared the shit outta me then I thought "Hey my english isn't too bad" so I read it out trying to hold onto the script while my hands shook like crazy and at the same time trying to make sure I didn't wet my pants.

After my audition the other two people auditioned and if I had been bad they are uhh...horrible and I thought I didn't really care that much before if I got in but if they get in and not me my ego will really take a beating so I prayed (like how only an agnostic can pray) and went home.

Two days later I got a message at like 5 in the morning telling me I got in and my first thought was "Who the fuck smses people that early???".

Now there was a lot of confusion from then on till my first time going for practice but I'll skip that part because really who is going to read this?

So the day I was supposed to go for practice I picked a t-shirt which I hadn't worn in ages and it had a very disgustingly bad smell on it but I put it on anyways and only realized how strong it was until I got to college. It was soo bad I had to ask Shah for his deodrant and only realized the repercussions of that later.

So I walked into LT1 feeling like shit and met Justin for the first time. He got the part of Norman the lady's man while I got the part of David because apparently "no offense but you naturally look stupid".

After which me and Justin went to photocopy the script and when we walked back into LT1 everyone was doing some wierd yoga kinda ritual on stage and my first thought was "Holy shit zo, you might have joined some wierd cult"

Finally when I got to see the rest of the cast practice I thought "Holy shit you CAN'T act like that. The last thing you did was an Aladdin musical!".

Ok I really am getting tired of recapping half a years worth of memories so I'll just skip it lah.

Under Chi Ho's guidance I managed to do SOMETHING on stage and really I have learned more from him than any other teacher I have ever had.

The people I met have been amazing and oh so talented. For once I felt I was with a group with similar interests. As much as I love all my other friends I realize probably half of them won't even know who Marlon Brando was and it felt great to be with people you could talk openly about the arts with without having the topic changed and being given "why-dont-you-watch-football-instead-of-this-crap" pity looks.

Really this experience has been something I won't forget about for a LONG time and it wouldn't have been half as good as it was without the people. All those times in Asia Cafe, LT1 and best of all being backstage just before showtime were some of the best...ever. Which is sad.

Nicholas, probably one of the most talented directors in Taylors (which isn't saying alot..but still) and maybe a little..uhh flamboyant? :D

Sharmin, probably one of the best drinkers around and she can sing!

Justin, probably one of the coolest people I know and boy can the man fart!

YY- still owes me a pool game and kinda scary...a little.

Everyone else thank you its been a real blast!

Altering Sheila's line here but

"Look everyone, zohaibs blogs back!"