As the head of the cultural club, I decided to celebrate the teacher’s day, falling on the 5th of September with a difference this year. Since we had real budding talent, it was decided to host a cultural extravaganza. The like of which the school had never seen before. The programmes finally short listed were a play which was a satire on the state of corruption, followed by a musical program by VJ Orchestra. This was the best in town and also known to me.

Since there was hardly a week left for the Teachers day, we began practicing in earnest staying back after school hours. To ensure smooth running of the programmes, I distributed work among all my friends and things seemed to be working well.

On the day I was feeling a bit nervous, but allaying all my fears we set forth with the programme in the school auditorium .The team entrusted with the reception of the teachers, were already on their job, welcoming the teachers with flowers and garlands. The students were getting restless, hence I requested them to kindly remain silent.

Welcoming the teachers, I announced the start of a memorable programme for the first time in the school. This was greeted with a loud applause. The programme started with the play ‘Corruption’. The curtains went up to show a politician sitting in his drawing room, with some hangers on, pressing his legs. Their dialogues were indeed juicy and in a short while, had the audience hold their sides with laughter.

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Things were going along fine, till one of my team mates signaled me to come aside. The look of dismay on his face got me worried. I hastened behind the stage to learn that there was no trace of the orchestra. They had rung up to regret their participation, on account of the indisposition of their key artists. The news came as a bombshell to me, for I had not in my wildest dream anticipated such an eventuality.

We had no alternative plan whatsoever .We again put our heads together and decided to approach Ashok, who was a talented singer to save the day for us. An emissary was sent to fetch him immediately. By now the play was approaching the climax. The main hero, playing the role of the politician, got up to make a small speech. He began well, but soon faltered and even prompting did not help. By now the boys were hooting and jeering and thus he had to beat a hasty retreat. The curtains were down but there was no sign of Ashok. My emissary returned with news that he had not come today. Being left with no alternative, I thought it prudent to go before the audience and apologise for this flop show.

Surprisingly, my humble apology brought an instant reaction. Our principal walked up to the stage and patted me on my shoulder, saying, “a Well-done boy there is nothing to be sorry about,” With a brief thanksgiving, the programme came to an abrupt end.

I was indeed feeling in the dumps and cursed myself for not having anticipated things. Later assessing the sequence of events, I realised that the programme was but doomed to fail .The extremely short time for practice and the lack of any alternate plan, was but courting disaster. I am now much wiser after the event, for not only has it has taught me more humility, but also made me more cautious and realistic.