The monologue.. and other things

Today was, like yesterday, marked with mental fogginess. I need to rethink the lifestyle, because something is either going wrong, or this is mini detox I am experiencing. I will let these things continue till weekend, and will review the situation then.

In the morning, I woke up at 6AM, just as I had planned. Went to brush the teeth et al. Trouble hit me then and there, somehow I felt so drowsy and tired and just drained of energy; that I immediately hit the pillow and tried to wake myself up twice more unsuccessfully. No avail. Finally I dragged myself to the bathroom at 8AM. Went to see the cricket match happening between India and Australia at WACA. Had a largish breakfast and went for the lecture.

Today also, I was not completely alert in the lecture, and fatigue was overriding me throughout. The topic of todays lecture was the international monetary systems, and since I am quite interested in understanding how the whole system works, I could keep myself from sleeping. It was back to the match, which I saw till the day end at around 3.

I had a theater class at 4PM where I had to deliver a monologue. I had no clue what that it, and so I almost gave that class a slip. The lucky part is that I just went there to check how many people are attending the class, and I realized that almost all are planning to attend. This can of course be attributed to the veiled threats of flunking given by the professor in the last lecture.

So, the stage was set, and I was trapped inside with no idea of what I was going to say in front of those savage batch mates who can kill someone real fast and smoothly. Then I saw the video camera right in the middle of the central isle of the classroom, its yellow sodium light mocking me in unflickering gaze. I was on the verge of running away then and there, but then I realised now that I am almost becoming MBA, I should be able to bluff my way out of this one also.

The presentations (monologues ) started and I was getting happy after many of my batch mates faltered while delivering the lines they had tried to by heart within a short time. That, IMHO, is a stupidest and sureshot way to screw yourself in front of audience. Why someone has to by heart those words when you have many of your own, is really beyond me. So, I recalled one of the short stories written by myself, and cooly converted it into a first person, instead of the actual third.

The professor asked the author of the fiction and I panicked again. I had no choice but, so I started to create emotions I would be inserting in the scene. The words were not important because its my strength that I can improvise and speak really well impromptu. So, basically I chose to introduce those emotions and created confidence in myself, while others were stuttering. Suddenly the scene reveresed right in front of my eyes. Some of the people who had prepared and also taken part in plays during school years started to perform really well. I was afraid to perform just after them because generally the recency effect can take your case. Funnily enough the chit with my name on it, was not picked almost till the end, there by increasing the overall adrenalin in the system.

When my turn finally came, surprisingly I didn’t even have butterflies in the stomach, which is customary for me. I went there and delivered a much better performance by even my standard, although I curtailed it much more than planned previously. I managed a laudable “A” in this performance. The performance is there on the recording forever now, and I must make it a point to take it and remember how I tackled the situation.

I did not go to gym and that is because I was feeling tired throughout morning. I think by tomorrow I should be all right and should go to gym for the customary workout, though not so much intense.

One more thing worth mentioning is that I had a “RAW lunch” today. It consisted of fruits ( papaya) and onions, cucumber, radish and tomato. This was a good step because the alternative was “Chana masala” which is bad for my system. The unwanted side effect was that I felt craving to have fried food and ate junk food by tons. The figuring out to implement system is critical.

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