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A faux pas on stage

long thought the finest actress on the English stage in Madras? But forget I did! Despite having her name as big as life on my little memory-jogger. But then, I seldom refer to such cards while speaking. And see what it made me commit. A horrible faux pas. To begin at the beginning, when P.C. Ramakrishna, that man for all seasons on the Madras English stage, asked me to receive his first book, "Bring Down the House Lights," at its launch, I told him that though I had been a regular at plays and films once, I'd had little time in recent years to catch up with both, so was out of touch. But, he pointed out, 50 years of the Madras Players makes it part of the heritage of the city _ "so here's another platform for you to speak about heritage". And, he added, "you have known in other fields many of the Madras Players I've recalled in the first part of the book and many who've written the essays on different aspects of theatre in the second part of the book!" And so, with the opportunity of a stage to ask the various theatre groups and the Press to get together to save Victoria Public Hall and ensure its restoration as another performing space, I said `yes.'

So there I was at the pre-inauguration celebration of the MetroPlus Theatre Festival, receiving the first copy of Ramakrishna's memoircum- compilation of essays on theatre, and saying my piece. Going by what Ramakrishna had told me, I said, I was sure I'd find in the pages of the book Girish Karnad, who while he was at OUP, placed the first print orders I received (I was in the printing business in those days), PC himself who I saw in "The Crucible," his first play (in 1969) and the first play I saw in Madras, Vimal Bhagat, Ronnie Patel and Noshir Ratnagar, who I used to meet in the Club, particularly in the Library, Mithran Devanesen known from his MRF days and like Gopi with Sri Lankan connections _ in fact, Gopi went to the same school I did in Colombo but a generation later _ George Deligianis, who would so enthusiastically introduce films at the USIS, and S. Ramachander who I first met when he was in charge of Hindustan Thompson's, Madras. I was sure I'd also meet in the pages Ammu Mathew whom Abraham Eraly had introduced me to in the heyday of Aside magazine, Yamuna who was another friend from the advertising world, OBM in her case, Grace Krishnaswamy of the British Council who helped me hone my cartographic knowledge by seeing me on my way to Britain, and Bhagyam Narayanan, who helped INTACH in trying to give new life to the Tiruvanmiyur temple tank, and_ And that's where I completely forgot and didn't look at my prompter to recall Vishalam Ekambaram. That's a faux pas for you! To forget the actress whose work you remember best! Forgive me, Vishalam, for not saying what I should have that evening, that I remember you for having been so helpful while at Thomas Cook's and so unforgettably tormented in "All My Sons" (Arthur Miller plays I never missed). PC remembers them all for different reasons. Vishalam for her fascination with Mammooty and shopping, Vimal Bhagat for his roared admonition of fellow actors, "Come on, Tiger, you've got to be heard by the deaf old lady in the last row," Ronnie Patel who kept substituting his words for the playwright's and driving his co-actors and the prompters to almost seek psychiatric help, Noshir Ratnagar who made the Parsi play an annual `tamasha' involving at least one person stripping on stage to the bare essentials till Ronnie once asked, almost as an afterthought, "Noshir, I don't wear briefs. Is that O.K.?," and Deligianis who saw Casablanca 99 times, the last time as he introduced it and said farewell to the USIS on the same day. There are a lot more recollections like these in PC's memoir _ and the bonus, he says, is "you get an indepth look into the dynamics of theatre and its emerging trends" in the second part. That part, I hope, gets expanded and finds a place wherever drama is taught.

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