Meena-ji

Meena-ji saw Manu Naik and me sitting apart from them, so she asked who the other two men, besides the office boys, were. Surendra Kaul told her about us, and about my background as an actor who has trained in New York. Meena-ji was quite intrigued with that piece of informtion–training as an actor and that too in New York!

She was most eager to meet this man who had gone all the way to New York to train as an actor. After we were formally introduced, she said, 'Hmm ... so actors undergo training too? This is the first time I'm hearing about this. We just memorise the dialogues, try to understand them properly and then deliver them. What else is there to do?' I explained to her that just as all performing arts - whether dance, singing or music — need to be mastered by undergoing systematic training or riyaz, similarly actors too needed to hone their talents by practising certain exercises. She said, 'Ok, but we always thought that actors are born …' 'Yes they are, and talent is a must, just like in singing and dancing, but it stays incomplete if one does not train with a master in the field. It takes a lot of time, too, to learn as you keep performing, and yet one can never truly master the art …' Meena-ji saw some point in my arguments, and asked to see some exercise that the actor does while training.