Dinner with an old friend last week reminded me of how my life is a veritable smorgasboard of dramatic occurances. I seem to crave drama, and drama seems to crave me back. It is a vicious cycle; I tend to put myself in highly charged storylines, while destiny seems predisposed to filling in the blank canvas of my life with ironic, fateful, dark, deep dramatic moments usually reserved for Woody Allen movies. Over the years, there have been plenty of romances, chance meeting, unusual circumstances and totally unpredicatble occurances that have made the past 23 years perfect fodder for either a) a deep, brooding look at a man’s long list of failed romances, ala John Cusack in High Fidelity, b) a funny sitcom with Zach Braff starring as myself, offering cute little morals at the end of each “nope, she was not THE ONE” episode or c) Mission Impossible 6.

The fact that I am a big movie buff might also have something to do with this dramatitis. Like a lot of people, I probably try to justify events in my life by finding some parallels with the lives of characters on the big screen, figuring that if it was ok for Alfie to mess up his life by being promiscous and not committing to anyone, so it was for me. I also admit that on occassion, in the midst of an emotional embrace or an amble down the Big Apple streets, I subconciously attach a soundtrack to the moment. You know, “Old habits die hard” for ex-girlfriends, “Beuatiful Day” for those sunny mornings or “Only living boy in New York” for those depressing gray days when you contemplate what it is you really want.

Given my flair for the dramatics, it is but natural that I have always loved acting, or atleast pretending to act. And while apart from a minor role in the “Frog and the princess” show in 2nd grade, a couple of times around that age when I got dressed up and went onto the stage and spoke a line or two in different languages, a little improv here and there and a whole lot of preening in front of my bathroom mirror, I have never really participated in anything noteworty. That all changed ofcourse with this month’s presentation of The Hip Hop Group’s Modern Ramayana. Ok, so while all this was was really just a small skit put together by friend of mine for brother’s wife’s baby-shower, it was fun to go through the whole nine yards of script revisions, harried rehearsals, on-the-spot improvizations and the like.

And what a fun time it was! From Amar’s frsutration with our continual tardiness and lethargy, to the energetic dance performances, to Ankit’s last-minute “I’ll pull out MY eye’s” goof-ups, it was a helluva time! The play was a radically 21st century reinterpretation of one of the two main Hindu religious epics (so we had to take pains to ensure that we weren’t bordering on blasphemy), and I got to play the main bad guy, Rav (Ravan, in the original epic). Transplanted as a “cool” gangster from New York, I tried to play him off with a sophisticated Brooklyn vibe. (Ok, ok, so it might not have come across like that, but in my mind atleast, that was what I was going for!) The skit went off very well, with all the “stars” putting on brilliant, Oscar (or atleast Filmfare!) worthy performances, and I was lucky enough to garner praise for my protrayal of “the king of the Bronx”. That, and I got to do the “spanking dance” in front of all the conservative folks in the audience and get away with it! Brilliant!

Well, that was a short recap of my brief appearance in the acting spotlight. I’ve never been too shy about performing in front of an audience (I love debating, sing my heart out in karaoke and have never had a problem with public speaking), so maybe this is another avenue I can cultivate as a hobby. Problem is, it will be hard to find an amateur theater group that will take in an Indian with no prior history of acting! Plus, I’m pretty sure my horrible acting skill will soon get me kicked off the stage in a matter of days…oh well, I can always perform in front of my beloved mirror