The actor

 Life is a big drama and one needs to be a good actor to wade through tricky plots. The acting skills aren’t just for professional actors. They are for all of us. Like Uttam proves it very successfully. He has his age-old little Maruti 800 and loves driving it fast. He is hesitant in lowering the speed to a safe level while taking sharp turns. It gives the look and feel of a racing car. The passengers would get goose-bumps.

This particular day, there is a brand new Eco-sport in front of him. Two burly drunks—drunk with youth and pride which is a far more dangerous cocktail than mere wine and spirits—are driving their small SUV pretty fast. Then they put up breaks suddenly. Uttam’s old little car decimates the back-bumper of their new, big car. Now as per self-derived traffic law on Indian roads, it’s always the fault of the one who happens to bang from behind—even if the vehicle in front suddenly puts up breaks to come to a screeching halt from a speed of 150 miles/hour.

Uttam is well aware of the law. He sees them getting down. They look capable of giving a painful thrashing. All of us need acting skills to survive. He acts well in this regard. He has performed the feat to good effect a few times. He slumps over the steering wheel and is found fainted due to the impact. A crowd builds up. The two aggressive guys are on the back-foot now. A mob also has its law. It sympathizes with the underdog, the small man pitted against the big guy. Our five senses allow us to observe the fake finery only. Fainted Uttam is secretly listening to each chime, trill, thud, shout and whisper. He has fervent faith in the crowd’s law. A new car’s terribly twisted bumper loses value in the face of a fainted driver of an old, little car. Public anger is ominously smoldering. The mob then becomes meanly mechanized for dispensing justice. A mob carries multi-layered sensitivities. You just need a little needle to prick them to action. The politicians do it wonderfully.

The big guys of the bigger car know they have to forego their sadistic vengeance and promptly run away to save any trouble that is building around. Uttam is then treated softly, gently and caressed by caring hands. And a miracle happens. Who says love isn’t a magic potion? It’s man! Uttam slowly recovers. This time he acts even better, getting into consciousness by degrees to make it look realer than the real. First he mutters something, then moves a little, performs weird contortions of face a few times, gives gasping sighs and slowly comes back to life. Vow, the confident metaphors of a part played well! Thanks to the marvelous Bollywood masala movies all of us can learn similar acts befitting different adverse situations in life.

This acting assignment fetches him instant rewards. He saves at least ten to fifteen thousand rupees that the big car bullies would have plundered from him. He also saves himself from a minimum of half dozen slaps that would have preceded the bargain. Acting is very profitable—in life, in movies, in soap operas everywhere.