Khatarnak Mitros, Great Experience, lots of learning, Thank you !!

Life does take you to some turning points somewhere sometime, and provide you an opportunity to accept it or pass it by. A few months back, on 26^th November last year, I met one person who gave me ride from San Diego to Los Angeles as we both were traveling to India and had flight almost at a same time in the evening. Airlines were different though (wish we could have traveled on the same flight), We had brief chat on the way to Los Angeles and that was it. Those few hours we almost get to know each other I found him a real source of inspiration in many ways. We departed from LAX. That was our first meet.

We came back to San Diego after our vacation time, He also came back almost similar time frame. We were chatting over the phone and were in touch with. Couple months passed and there was one more opportunity in front of me. He was looking for people who can participate in his drama that he was preparing for “Mahavir Janm Kalyanak” celebration at Jain Society of San Diego. One day I received an email to check if I would like to participate. Immediately, I replied, YES! didn’t want to lose the opportunity to work with such an inspiring person. We started meeting more frequently for drama practice and discussion. I got to know many new people who were participating in the same drama. What an amazing team we have. Each and every person are so enthusiastic and with full of positivity that I never saw in past. He thought us “Respect Time”, “The time you lose, never comes again”, “If you cannot respect time, you can’t respect anything” What a powerful and inspiring statements. Looking at his enthusiasm, we all agreed that he holds more than double energy than we all participants. He is a wonderful personality, such a down to earth person, and a lifetime friend.  His name is Mr. King Uncle. My son Aarav has a story, why a very first time he called him a “King Uncle”) He actually deserves this title.

He invited everyone to his house,  and read the drama story and explained to us what he is looking for and about the plan. We started practicing as per plan, the first step was recording, we had to record each and every characters’ dialogues. Then we had to practice with lip sync with emotion and expression, nobody was a professional artist but King Uncle made us all performed like a professional.

One of my colleague  Shvetank shared his feeling about our experience on Drama which exactly expresses everyone's feeling and I would like to share here with his permission :)

From the very first conversation about the drama, story or skit to the final moments of the performance, there have been many moments that have made us a family. We had our sine-wave moments, we mostly saw far more upside than any downside, if there was any.A family always have one path maker and we are fortunate to have King Uncle as our path maker along with Queen Aunty, guiding us, supporting us, teaching us, going along with us, laughing with us and above all, lifting all of us up. We will always be their students and we feel proud and fortunate in saying that. This show is dedicated to and belongs to the backstage performers, whom crowd didn't see doing what they did. To begin with, someone had a VISION from the story, someone THOUGHT of making a drama visualizing and CRAFTING characters, someone took the TIMEOUT from the daily routine spent TIRELESS hours in reaching out to each and every one, finding alternatives, CONVINCING on what-if scenarios, and making us BELIEVE that we can do it. Someone lost their sleep and spent nights and STOLE every moment from the work-day that they could to keep the momentum up and doing what was needed to be done. Someone spent and drove many places to find the right PROPS for each character. Someone WROTE each line of the dialogs on the blank paper, knowing nothing what word was going to come next. Someone had piles of rewritten papers before anything presentable came along. Someone spent hours with each character in making sure the dialogs were accurate and suited each character. Someone corrected, someone memorized, someone learned to deliver, someone brought emotions from the very first dialog, someone came along and put all the pieces together and artistically converted raw sand into a sculpture. Someone happily accepted the role that was given, Someone came to all practices just for one dialog, Someone helped behind closed curtain or AV systems, showing no pictures, no videos, no wows (what a selfless act!), Someone Crafted, Painted, Decorated (...again no direct-wows from the crowd, what a selfless act!), Someone made "What?-Really?-Is-This-possible?" to real life Elephant and Samosharana "Refuge to All". Someone showered the Petals showing another dimension was possible. Someone joined us with their unique expertise and no relation to our religion or show and yet didn't hesitate to help. Just imagine the hours from thoughts-to-real life props, This is YOU, This is you Someone, who made it all possible.

The expectation was high from all of us because This was not the first drama that he directed, He had a long successful history of making wonderful plays and he has been making these types of play from last more than around 20 years. He has a proven history of raising bars every year by giving best out of best plays with a nice and inspiring message. This play was on Lord Rishabhdev, his son Bharat Raja, his mother Marudevi Mata, and his younger brother Bahubali Raja. The drama was on how they achieved “Keval Gyan” and what are our main enemies which are not letting us go on the right path for the liberation of our immortal soul. The name of the play was “Khataranak Shatru” (Dangerous Enemies). The play was compiled so nicely that each and every word had a deep meaning.

We all were so tensed just before our play and we were not sure whether we are going to deliver right and met audience and his expectation. There was a huge expectation from this play. Everyone was hungry, tired and ready to call it a day. In spite, pin drop silence throughout the play...and everyone listening to every dialog and every scene, It was amazingly performed a play together by every one of us. We received lots of compliments and have been still receiving it… What a great teamwork and success, Guys! I am really blessed and fortunate to be part of this team.

ભુલી જવાના છે બધા લાખો કીતાબો સામટી..

અમે નથી ભુલવા ના કાઇ આપેલી શીખામણો આપની... 

You, the someone, who is a visionary, thinker, creator, dreamer, maker, laborious worker, teacher, helper, leader, speaker, artist, performer, dancer, and a lifetime friend. If you heard "wows!" yesterday, those all belong to you and your hard work. This was indeed a great opportunity given to us and what a lifetime memory it has become! Very fortunate to be a part of it.

Thanks and Love to all, "Khatarnak Mitros" :)

LisAnk-Aarav