Tuesday 10 March 2015

The one where I #StartANewLife


We often find ourselves in life, not seizing upto our true potential or not being able to seize the moment and achieve what we're set out to achieve. This story is about one such bold step from me, where I decided that it's time to #StartANewLife.

This is about the time when I was in the 6th grade and the school decided to have a skit on the annual function, based on India's freedom moment. Now it is crucial that at this moment I tell the readers that at that time; I used to be the most soft-spoken and shy boy of my class, hardly any one (not even the closest of my friends) had heard  me speak in English, leave apart performing in English.

Coming to the skit, it was about 15 minutes long and all the small roles were filled - and only one major role was left, that was of Mr.Jawaharlal Nehru. I wanted to take part in the skit but I was too shy and knew that no one will consider me ideal for the role.

Having said that, when I took the bold step and told the coordinating teacher that I'm interested in the skit, she was very welcoming and told me to give an audition. I now have 2 choices : 1) should I remain this soft-spoken shy boy through the best days of my life or 2) should I seize the moment and #StartANewLife - where I'm not hesitant to speaking in public and most importantly, I'll have the art that we call "performing on stage", which everyone doesn't has.

I auditioned for the part of Mr.Jawaharlal Nehru and to my utmost surprise, got selected. That wasn't it. Just 5 days prior to the final skit, I was told that I've to revise a 2 page long speech named "at the stroke of midnight hour", the very famous speech by Mr.Jawaharlal Nehru when India got freedom.

Now, not only was I performing on the stage but the last part of the skit depended solely on me - if the speech didn't come out right, what will I do! Understandably, for a 11-12 year old, a bad first time experience of the stage can turn into a life-time of "phobia" and hence this mattered all the more to my parents, who were very supportive in helping me #StartANewLife.

My father suggested me to watch the video of the speech on youtube, which I did and got inspired. After that, one can say that it was a "cake walk" for me, for some reason; watching Mr.Jawaharlal Nehru give the speech got out all the fear from me and I was truly motivated to make the choice of not being feared of the stage but instead, LOVE IT.

That's my story of how I overcame the odds and changed the way I looked at life - from a shy and soft-spoken boy, today - I love to speak on the stage and in gatherings of thousands of people and today I shared the story from where I decided to #StartANewLife.

Aditya Jha Author

Aditya Jha is 20 years old and has had a passion for writing since a young age. He has had the great honor of being published in the book "blank space", which featured his fictional short story "a writer's tale". He has also published 2 ebooks - Best.Generation.Ever. and An Iron Lady (Autobiography on his grandmother's life). He has great passion for speaking and is a Delhi University Debator - having won various laurels for his speaking.

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