CCA in school

CCA or Co-curricular activities was one of my favorite periods in primary school. Every wednesday 1:00 - 3:00pm was the time slot. It was the time when every student could display his / her talent. There were various competitions held during the 2 hours. The competitions ranged from singing, to dancing, to story telling, to mono acting, to recitation, to drawing, to elocution, fancy dress and more. My favorites were story telling, mono acting and elocution.
All the students in the school were divided into 4 houses : Red or Shivaji, Blue or Tagore, Green or Vivekananda and Yellow or C.V.Raman. Based on the prizes secured by individual students, their respective house would get points. At the end of the year, during the school day celebrations, the House with the highest points would get a trophy. I remember, I was in the "BLUE" house for four years. (we managed to get the trophy twice during that period .... Green house and Yellow house got it the other 2 times)
Of all the competitions, the remember this particular one distinctly. I was in my second standard and we had fancy dress competition that day. I was supposed to get dressed as a "Drunkard". Daddy had put in a lot of efforts to teach me intonations as I delivered my words during my act, the movements etc. I was very confident with all the nuances daddy had taught me. But on the day of the competition, as I stood waiting for my turn, I looked around, only to find all my classmates dressed neatly (so I felt ... Every other person was either a teacher, doctor or Krishna / radii). I felt that everyone in the room was going to put on a great show with nice clothes except me ... Remember I was a drunkard and was wearing a worn out shirt and my hair was crumbled. I didnÂ’t want to go anywhere near the stage. Daddy kept assuring me, that I was just fine ... it didnÂ’t matter what others were wearing .... But I was apprehensive. I wished deep inside that I would never be called on stage. Then came my turn .... I looked at daddy again, he gave me a pat on my back and reassured me. I went on the stage and put in my best show.
The results were announced soon after .... I was thrilled to learn that I had got the first place.... and had secured some valuable points for the Blue House. Not just that, one of the judges who was a teacher from the neighboring school was so impressed with my performance that he insisted, I come over to his school and perform again :) .... my excitement knew no boundaries..... I went to his school and performed as well. This time I had no inhibition.
To top it all, my dad who had "coached" me was invited as a chief guest and judge for the fancy dress competition held in the neighboring school !!!!