1 Degree Of Creativity

I remember waking up at 7 A.M in the morning abruptly just to get a call from Hiya saying “aren’t you coming?” now that gives me a ‘bad buzz’ a term that I’m very used to hearing after spending hours with Hiya and the other 1di operatives over the past few months.

It took me several minutes on the phone where I pretended to be in a conversation with Hiya on the phone to realize that I begged the woman to become a Team Leader in the new project. The name of the event is still a Mystery of to me so lets call it ‘1 Degree of Creativity’.

After showing up more than half an hour late at Labaid, the place is now the official meeting point for us when we go to Puran Dhaka, mainly because it’s really close to Hiya’s home, being the EC does have its perks. I got sidetracked let us get back into the topic. After showing up late at Labaid me and Hiya and some other EC who’s name I constantly forget ventured onto the depth of Puran Dhaka looking for schools which Hiya targeted to be the places where we then tainted the minds of little children forever.

One of the places that I remember would be Midford Hospital. It was the first meeting point in Puran Dhaka. Having all these meeting points make me feel like an actual agent constantly engaged in rendezvous. Well anyway we got our first school, WVA Primary School and along with it we got Calandar High School. With both being in the same building.

The First Class went in a very unorthodox fashion. I was still nagging Hiya and the others for my school for Drama. And the First class was in WVA Primary. It was Apurbo’s art class where we all painted the green and red Bangladeshi National Flag. Also getting our face painted in the process. I’d rather not talk about the event due to the size involved

Then Hiya got busy with her division in Calandar High School where she did Dance, the same place where I’m currently banned from going. I got my school, Islamia High School for drama, the school and I had something in similar in being a ‘bad buzz’ to Hiya. Actually it’s a great school! The kids there were, in my humble and modest opinion, the best there was out of all the schools with the brightest kids.

Basically there were five subjects that Hiya was interested in during the event. And after the teaching-the-kids-process. We needed to showcase our talent in Laal Kuti in Puran Dhaka. The subjects were

• Art, which was crafted in WVA Primary School by Apurbo.
• Song, which was orchestrated in WVA Primary school too later by Asmina
• Dance, which was choreographed in Calandar High School by Hiyaman
• Poem, which was recited in Islamia High School too by The Guy Who’s Name I Keep Forgetting
• Drama, which was directed by Me and my partner Imran in Islamia High School

After a month of bonding with the kids and sharing what we know unto them. The show was creeping nearer everyday.

Hiyahoo booked the event at the 9^th in spite of us being desperately under schedule. It’s mainly because she has to go India. She still didn’t leave yet. Woohoo!

We were all in breaking point as we had to cram entire plays in the minds of the kids in very little time. Imran and I managed to do 3 plays to atleast 20 kids in 2 days. Asmina had her singing classes under my nose and I don’t think she had much time either. Hiyatacular, being the leader in everything and the ruler of the world, I mean 1di, she got her dancing team ready very quickly and in schedule. Apurbo had little worries as he was in charge of Art, and he didn’t have to showcase much. I don’t think anything was done with the Art…. Hmm……

We were all basically in breaking point through out the whole event that’s what I’m thinking. I know one word that I can just say out loud or write in this ‘small’ journal of 1 Degree of Creativity that can make a few people shudder and fear…. Here it comes… PROPS!

Yes Props! We were supposed to showcase what we taught our kids for less than a month in an Auditorium with a stage with a background that needed to be filled. Hiyasaurus forgot about the entire thing. So we had one week to carve out Styrofoam (sp?) and paste brown paper to make a couple of trees, millions of flowers, a house, which we forgot to put on, a sun which we forgot to make, a horsehead which we ignored and three flowerheads that we didn’t need and swords which were destroyed during the event.

The Props were surprisingly done completely thanks to the few people that goes by the names Nooha, Shababa and Ayon…. The rest were just there to show their faces during the event….

I still have a lot to write. To make a long story short, or atleast shorter than it should be right now. We had one day left so we checked out the auditorium. It was BEAUTIFUL and so vintage-like. We checked out everything and put down all the unfinished props there and I checked the sound board and lights, I had a bad feeling about everything that went in the hours afterwards….

I came home at 12 am that night. I was surprisingly allowed to go out one more time at 7 in Meeting Point *10 taka to the people who are reading to guess where the place was* to go to Puran Dhaka. I was late by half an hour again, the nostalgia. And then I saw that there weren’t enough people there.

During the event we were underhanded and we were low on man power and the kids showed up late so we didn’t have much time to dress rehearse, so we didn’t EVER…

And this is how the show went out… Bullet Points!

• The Great Announcers came to the stage and no one could hear them. My fault.
• The dances went very well as It was choreographed by King Hiya.
• The Songs were beautifully sung by Asmina and her kids and the guy who did guitar was awesome!
• The poems went almost picture perfect as one of the girls had severe stage fright and ran from the stage crying
• The Dramas went pretty well. Sonar Bopon, was a huge success as the three guys had their lines crisply memorized and performed amazingly well on-stage. Bir Purush went really well lead by a substitute khoka who did perfect.
• The last drama, Choto Laal Dupatta, which was supposed to be the main event, went tragically as we forgot to add in a few magical ingredients which should’ve made the show fantastic but we forgot. My bad.

Basically the show was under-cast, under-manned and basically every word that goes with the word ‘under’. But it was a great show and we all had fun and especially the kids. I still miss them and I hope to do it all over again after my exams are over and when Hiya! At the Disco comes back from India.