Wireless & Sich-like by F Austin Hyde

1979 – a group of us were selected to act in a play for School's annual day - Wireless & sich-like. No one remembers how such an obscure play was chosen. Almost 30 years later – I found pictures and then searched for the play on the web. I came across a 1946 publication – Seven Modern Plays, which had this one too

The story is that the lead character, Geoffrey (played by yours truly) convinces his friends to play a prank on his grandpa [who says sich for such] that he has managed to make a wireless radio. They all team up, get under the covered table and wait for grandpa. Geoffrey then convinces his grandpa that it works. When he switches on the radio on the table, his friends below the table start to sing….but too many friends under a table for too long is not sustainable and the table cloth drops…

It was funny; it was entertaining. We all became recognisable faces in school – and got selected for other plays for the rest of school and college lives. Losing stage fright at an early age lead to shaping extrovert and confident personalities [at least in my case] for which I would always thank my teacher who selected me for Wireless & Sich-like.
Here's to you Sir. Here's to you Mr. RP Bhatnagar.

Cast: L to R:

Summet Singhal; Mukesh Keswani; Rana Nanda; Umar Iraqi; Anuj Mattoo; Rajat Ranjan; David Osmond; Mr. Rajendra Bhatnagar; Rajesh Joshi; Vish Dhamija; Atul Dubey