Matters Of The Heart--A PaNi FF

Chapter 1

"You have to wake up early or you're screwed", with such a message flashing in front of your eyes the first thing in the morning , anyone was bound to have a heart attack let alone Niti Taylor who had the heart of a butterfly. Niti bolted upright at once and in the process dropped her phone on the floor. That was nothing new for her. She had a habit of dropping things, sometimes herself too. Sometimes she took people and things with her. You could always find band-aids stuck to different parts of her body; arms, wrists, elbows, knees, you name it she had it. So compared to that, this slight mishap was nothing. She rubbed her eyes, shaking off sleep from her eyes and glanced at the wall clock right in front of her .It was 8'o clock. Phew! She had a good two hours in hand to get ready and be where she was supposed to be. She stretched to pick up her phone from the floor inwardly cursing Barsha to the burning pits of hell. Barsha, her room-mate and best friend, had purposely set the alarm so early, despite knowing that she had pulled an all nighter and only crashed at five in the morning. It was not an easy task juggling second year mass communication at Sapphirres Mumbai and part time acting, her passion. Last night she was up completing her assignment for college that was due today or else she would be rusticated from college due to low attendance. But Barsha knew that acting was her first love and was the most important thing to her. So despite everything she had made sure that I was up early to be prepared for what was coming my way today. I had been in this field for quite a while now. Though I was only 20, I had been round the block doing add commercials, small time roles in Hindi serials, Tamil and Telegu films and even tried music videos in the name of pursuing my life-long passion- Acting. If I were being honest, though I had experienced quite a lot in the last 4 years I had little to show in terms of results. That I was proud of. Fate had not been on my side and I couldn't honestly say that I had achieved what I had set out to do. My family has been the biggest strength through all of this. They have supported me right through this, understanding my love and passion for acting.Hailing from a well-to-do business family in Delhi, my decision to shift to Mumbai and pursue acting as a career was met with much opposition and hours of ruthless arguments till I convinced them that this was something I really wanted to do. My sister, Sneha, the apple of my eye, had been my backbone through all of this. I was very close to her and shewas more a mother to me than my sister. Because honestly, for all the ranting and failures I absolutely loved the creative art. I gives me a high. I don't know how else to describe it. To become different characters, to experience different circumstances , to look into the camera and convince people that you are not who you seem to be but someone different with whole other range of emotions and feelings to deal with. Yes I love every bit of it. So despite all the road blocks I was still standing juggling college and my passion for acting, trying to make ends meet. And Barsha knew that all too well. Hence the alarm. She wanted me to be ready for today. Today was a big day. I had an audition for the female lead in a new show that was being launched by MTV India based on lives of a group of teenagers involving love and friendship. It was the first time MTV was entering into the zone of fiction shows, always being popular with the reality shows genre,and the show was youth based, primarily set in college and around music. It dealt with friendship and love and its various facets. It was an exciting prospect and I had been approached to play the female lead. They hadn't given out details just the character sketch and a couple of scenes for the actors to audition. But from whatever little I could tell, the character was a innocent yet spirited teenager who believes the good in the world and people around her. It would essentially be based on friendship and music with some romance here and there. All in all it was step up from the things I had been doing ever since, and this project felt like it had potential. Last night after the college assignment I had practiced my scenes. I had a clear idea in my head as to what Nandini would be like. Yes, Nandini that's the name of the character I was going to play, if got selected. I cannot quite describe it but I felt an instant connect with her. The scene that they had set out for the audition was a emotional one, but I felt I had got it. Feeling the character. I always thought that was the most important part in acting. To actually be the character feel like it. Feeling confident about my grip on the character and the scene, I got up from the bed ready to face what was coming my way.