Being Lola

Standing in the centre spot on stage , clad in my mother's saree , the spotlight on me and an audience of about 700 people before of me. This is the story of how an ordinary teenage girl transformed into Lola Kutty. She had to change her attire, her accent all in hopes of being Lola. Our talent contest (for grades 7 and 8) was coming up , it's an annual event. I auditioned for mad ads , which is basically team effort to create a humorous advertisement. I was selected and had a group of very dedicated , crazy and creative students like myself. In the ad we created I played one of the very famous Channel V (India) VJ'S Lola Kutty. I had reluctantly imitated her before ,in front of an audience of about 7 people , all family. This time the audience would be about 700 people. So this called for a large scale transformation into the saree clad ,heavy Malayali accented Lola. It's was much easier than I am making it seem like. The talent contest is a day I will never forget , my very first time wearing a saree( I did a rehearsal at home ), trotting in my school where only few teachers wore sarees. That was a major reason some people mistook me to be a teacher , they were sarcastic of course. The expressions on the faces of my teachers and friends was unforgettable. Me and my group practiced a lot that day before our final performance. Then the time came for us to perform and our performance made the audience burst into peals of laughter. We were overjoyed that people were laughing at us. My performance in particular got an amazing response which I didn't expect in my wildest dreams. One of the judges, my music teacher was giving a speech after the contest ,she stood at the podium making her speech and then looked towards me ,what happened next took me by surprise "And Lola kutty you took my heart away" embarrassed by the compliment but overjoyed by the recognition I mouthed a thank you. That is something I will remember for the rest of my life. My group won second place. I celebrated at home over a large tiramisu cake with my family and friends. Life wasn't the same for that girl she was there after known as Lola Kutty.