Acting

Its so weird.I mean we start thinking about something, and our mind switches between things so fast that within a fraction of second we even forget what was the initial thought we began with.Typically we start thinking about future and end up smiling at past.
Last night , while cooking, the word "Acting " popped up in my head and disappeared.Disappeared because I was busy with cooking. In the hours that followed I tried hard to remember which word it was but couldn't .
Then all of a sudden ,while watching TV , it appeared again. But this time I was prepared. I switched off the TV and started thinking why it clung in my mind. Then I got the answer. Arun had written me a recommendation today in which he mentioned about my acting in a skit I did in my last company.That was one horribly scripted skit I will never forget . It won the first prize. I was amused to see how stupid people are in judging things.I felt good. But very soon it backfired. The skit had won the first prize because of my supposedly good Acting. Now I couldn't laugh. But we won cash prize of 500 bucks each. That eased things a little bit.
"Delhi Times". Another word popped in my mind. I wrote down "Acting" on a piece of paper so that I could come back to it again after figuring out where the fuck this "Delhi Times" came from.
Back in college days, the only thing we used to look in newspaper was the Delhi times.Rest of newspaper was junk, not just according my thoughts,but in general TOI has always been trash.
Then all of a sudden an interview talk flashed in my mind that I read in Delhi Times.Some bollywood actress spitting some crap about her life. I cant figure out exactly why I would have read that interview. Probably I was staring at the actress picture and was expecting to read in her interview that she is feeling like a big idiot standing in the pose viewers are seeing her right now.I do remember of that interview or may be from some other similar interview that the actress said that generally people think that actors get undue money and appreciation . And that they work really hard for this. They do acting for like 15 hours a day , so as to finish everything on schedule.

Then my mind went into further past. As a 10 year old I asked my brother how come a labor who carries bricks on his head throughout day in Sun get so less money while someone who sits in office get more money. The typical childhood question with which we
grow up. My brother ,two years elder to me, had said that the labor cant do what the office guy can do but the office guy can do his work and he is capable of doing labors work as well.I was happy with the answer.Although that might not have been the exact answer, but it was true in itself to some extent.I tried relating the labor officer logic to what the actress had said. That the actors can do what most of us can do. But vice versa is not true.Didn't fit. I didn't try hard to think. Probably I knew that I knew the answer .But all this while that I had been thinking, my eyes were fixed at the letters I had written on paper. Acting.

And all of a sudden everything was clear. And that the actress was right . They are certainly fairly paid.Its such a tough job.
Acting as someone else ,15 hours out of 24 in a day is definitely one hell of a task.Take 6 hrs. out of 24 for sleeping . So, out of 18 hours they are not themselves for 15 hours. This is crazy. How can someone not be himself for almost every moment of his existence. And on top
of that some of these actors even go to the extent of saying that they like acting.I wonder what it could be so bizarre and disgusting in their own existence that they prefer to be like someone else. Some even say that they like doing diversified roles which means that they can be anyone but themselves. But whatever it is , they certainly need to be compensated for it. In any way they want. They certainly make a better sacrifice than the soldiers on border.Dying is easy. Living is tough.And to live like someone you are not is....