Lights ….Action…Camera….cut cut cut… Sir, let’s have a retake… RETAKE…. Countless cuts , edits and retakes finally deliver a flick every Friday or soaps on the Idiot box.

I was watching a much celebrated play of Sharman Joshi last weekend in Bombay.  All was great, the play was to perfection and I had a grand evening.  However, while driving back home, me and my friends were discussing how different it is to act in movies as against performing upfront on stage, where one cannot afford to make a mistake.  When you are acting in front of a live audience, you don’t have this liberty to RETAKE; the artist has to be 100% sure of dialogue delivery and the scene sequence and enactment.

In both scenarios, viz. silver screen and theatre, the artists rehearse a lot and only then is a masterpiece delivered – both on screen as well as on stage.  Her however, stage has an upper hand.  On the silver screen, a finished product is on display which is recorded for life, whereas on stage it is doing the same thing again and again with perfection and if the show is famous then many times in a month and it keeps going on.

I am sure this is what the design of life is.  Whether it is a Board Room meeting of sales or business planning, pre-match data and analysis of a cricket match by team, preparation for competitive exams, planning an adventure trip  or playing with big data – everything needs preparation, planning and simulation to the closest possible.

Yes, planning is an important tool for every action we take in life, but implementation of those plans is the key to success. Life is always on court or in the field, life is where the action is.  We can simulate every situation but if it is not perfected it would fall flat when the real action is taking place.

Many of us are good at making plans but often fail to implement it , because we do not master it. We fail to understand that the real action would be in the theatre called Life, where there would be a large audience but the bouquet or brickbat has only one recipient – us, individually or in a small group.

Although the play was very good, but it again taught me a very important lesson in life – that however good I plan on paper, but if I don’t rehearse it well, it may fall flat, because I won’t get a RETAKE when I am dealing with a situation where there is no second chance.  If I don’t train myself to climb and practice to near individual perfection, I may not comeback from a fall of a cliff.

Unlike movies , in live stage plays one can often change styles , seeing how the audience reacts to them..films are dubbed , even if an actor speaks something wrong can be rectified in dubbing but on stage you speak what your narrative says , gives us as example of how important our words are. So we should think before we speak.

So folks, the key here is that along with planning we need to practice what we are learning . Because life is EXTEMPORE. There is no RETAKE in life.

Article by: mubarak hussain, an entrepreneur, blogger, foodie and an avid trekker.