Talent shows ... customary in family unions !!

I was reminded a lot about my family over the weekend .... it reminded me of the days when we used to meet as a family and spent quality time. Most of my cousins now are spread across in the US and I wonder when we will all meet at some place. (we have attempted a few family unions.... but has not worked out so far).
During those childhood days (this reminds me again .... I am old now :((( ) we cousins met as a family atleast 2-3 times a year. Ganesha - Gowri festival was almost customary family union time. We generally met during Summer vacations too.
It was one of those summer vacations when we had all gathered in "SR" uncle's house in Bangalore. We were 8 kids in all of ages from 3- 12. We decided to put up a talent show. Uncle "SR" house was spacious and it had a servant room which we cousins turned into our "Talent Show rehearsal room" There was some debate as to who would be the anchor for the show. Finally "S" got the privilege. Ensuring that all of us had ample scope to display our talent was our primary goal.
The shows were decided.... and looked something like:
* Drama (by S, D, K and R)
* Monoacting (by M)
* Mad ads (Sp and SM)
* Antakshari ( D, S)
* A grand Qawalli !!!

I don't remember anything about the drama ... all I remember is we really practiced very hard !!! We had to work on the costume, make up (he, he , he) as well !! Monoacting was in Tamil (one of our relatives lived in Chennai at that time). It was an act of "Veera Pandiya Katta-bomman". I don't remember all the mad ads... but then one of them was a Pan Pasand ad !
The ad goes ... "Shaadi aur tumse ... kabhi nahi" .... dramatized by Archana Joglekar on screen in a very angry mood. And then she would eat a Pan pasand and her mood would change drastically and would be as cold as ice and she would say the same dialogue "Shaadi aur tumse .... kabhi nahi", with a hint of shyness ....
Of course, we cousins, couldn't let an opportunity of creativity escape. We reversed the mood in our mad ads ... our Mad ad person "Sp" would say the dialogue in a calm mood first and then after she tastes Pan pasand, her mood would dramatically change.
As for the antakshari ... we had various rounds including, normal antakshari, word round, Antara Mukhda round and Actor - Actress round ! One of the things I can never forget about the antakshari is the amazing involvement the elders showed in the game. One of the uncles "V" almost fell off his chair in excitement when he guessed his song correct !!!
And then came our grand finale ... Qawalli !! It was a completely original composition ... original lyrics, original music ... of course all of us participated in it !!! When I think back now ... the lyrics / music sound ridiculous ... it went something like ... "Hindu Muslim, alag hai, dono ka matlab ek hai". The entire group was divided into 2 divisions ... one section represented Hindu and the other Muslim.... we tried our best to match up costume as well !!
The talent show was a big hit ! And so we came up with different activities involving the whole family everytime we met.
I am waiting for the day when our kids will come up with something similar and we cousins play the encouraging parents role ;)