The First Step

Writer's note: I really kept this as short as I could, but some things are just meant to expand out of their limits. This article is my way of thanking the 'PRS Explorers'. This article is for 'The Mad Hatter' because maybe without him, the Alice in me would have never gotten used to 'The Wonderland', without Hatter's friendship, maybe Alice would have always kept seeing "bonkers or being of the hook" as a bad thing. (Special thanks to Hans Zimmer for creating the awesome music that he does.) And finally this is for the crazy ones, "...Because maybe the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who actually do.".....

...THE FIRST STEP... 

             They say a journey ends when the traveller reaches his/her destination. And each destination has two roads; one that goes to it, and one that goes from it. The journey of  'The Staircase' was one of the most precious ones for me and probably to all of the ones who have been a part of it since day 1. And after we had reached the destination, the world around us was the same. Nothing had changed for them, and for us? Everything had. Sometimes things change around and you can do nothing about it, and sometimes you change, and things around you can do nothing about it. 'The Staircase' changed us. A friend of mine asked me how did 'The Staircase' begin. I really had no answer, actually, I did have many answers but I did not know how to place them, so I just smiled and said, "It chose us." Because I really don't know where and how did it begun. Did it begun at, "Guys, Infinity event! Drama competition! Let's do this! What say?" or did it begun at "So you're into creative writing and all, huh?" Who knows..

          We had creative differences, there were very few times but yes there were when we literally wanted to bite each other's heads off, but then we all used to reach one common point and it was great because all along the way, we worked like a team. As much as the others love denying it, I still would say that 'The Staircase' also helped me bond with my friends. 'PRS Explorers' might not remain the same after a few years, but every time each member thinks of this time we had together, or the samosas and coffee, or the sleepless nights, they're going to smile, and that smile will be priceless.

         'The Staircase' revolves around something unspoken. Or probably something that is widely discussed. 'The Staircase' is concrete and abstract. The plot, the character building, the character baking, the script, the rehearsals, the team-bonding time, the win, the loss, the help, and then the win in the most twisted way, these were just some steps and PRS Explores just went on pushing and pulling each other to the next steps and the entire team kept climbing, and on 19th February 2015 it felt like we reached there. The excitement never cooled down but after the judges declared their decision and we got away from that place, we sat down for some time, No one said anything, no one was laughing, no one was crying, comfortable silence spread over, and none of us uttered a single word, and that moment... was undefinable. I really can't define it or put it into words. Because in that silence we went on thanking each other for nothing or for everything. I won't be shocked if I find myself in tears at the end of this article. Because all of us felt like we had reached to the top of it. But in reality, we had just climbed the first step, and as much as we wanted it to be the same, we all were still climbing different sets of  'The Staircase'.

         For me, personally, 'The Staircase' came into my life when I needed it the most. 'The Staircase' has been my teacher. IT has taught me to keep the dark and light balanced, IT has taught me to believe in myself. The day 'The Staircase' comes back to life after a few years, maybe more grandly, and I know it will, the day the world will understand the ideology behind 'The Staircase', will be the day they will understand how high can the human world can rise. 'The Staircase' happened to me because of me, 'The Staircase' happened to me because of the PRS Explorers. 'The Staircase' happened to me because of that one person. And through this I have learned that to reach 'The Staircase' you have to still climb many and many other sets of staircases and the secret to get there is start climbing. I remember the night before our final performance of 'The Staircase' as a skit I and my co-writer, my buddy, we were quarrelling and we had it fixed in our mind that we were not going to win. That night he told me, "We are not going there to compete with anyone, we are going there to rule" and that happened. The characters came to life and then they died. But we are going to be here. They are within us. All of us are them. They are us.

            Someone once told me, "We can do this. Together we can."  This journey ended on a very happy note. We reached there in a grand way, but alas! I am sad that the journey had to end. And now I'm again on the road, waiting and running to achieve something else. And what did I win? I won myself, I won a way of hoping again, I won courage, I won the battle in a very twisted, wicked way that no one other than my soul knows about, I won the dark in me, I won the light in me. I cut down the strings... and now? I'm free...

Signing off for now,

-Nidhi Paralikar