NIASA 2008

It was 6:00 in the morning. Dhaval was already up. I thought I must also brush up. Dhaval practiced his presentation, I saw him making notes. I quickly had a bath and was already ready at 6:30. Finally I told Dhaval to rehearse his presentation once. He did. And he was pretty much in time. 13 minutes.

Then I asked for my turn. We were getting late. However, Dhaval allowed me to rehearse once. I was not in time…over 16 minutes. Deciding to cut down on my talking, we reached the venue.

Things started an hour late. In addition, we were said that we had 20 minutes to present instead of 15. We were happy. Dhaval got a little extra time to make notes. I already had mine typed out. I had already visited the toilet 2 times. Dhaval’s was the third name to be called and we were excited towards that. In the middle of his presentation, the lights went off…that is when we cautioned him to go slow with his speech.

I congratulated him. Things went on. There were interesting projects. Many of them could not finish theirs in time. It may be the 5th time I went to the refreshing room. My name had not been called yet…

After lunch, I had almost given up hopes. After the sixth presentation, I kept my notes inside my bag. But it was then I had actually become more attentive towards others’ presentation. And I was literally enjoying them. When the seventh presentation ended, the announcer called out…”Anuj – Cinema for the Blind”.

I was relieved. I visited the loo once again!

While the jury was still discussing the 8th project, I went to the loo for the last time. And then it was me. The presentation went glibly…I talked out my last line on the ring of the gong. 10 seconds extra…

I was almost impatient through the final presentation .

15 minute break and the winners were announced. Anuj ….Cinema for the blind. Gauri jumped out of joy. Dhaval congratulated me.

The venue and the date for the national jury have not been decided.