My initiation into the theatre and art happened in my childhood when a professional theatre group in my village (in North Kerala) approached me to play the role of Raja Harischandra’s son Lohitaksha. They had seen me acting in some amateur stage performances in the village with some of my friends for every important festival or occasion. I agreed and was fortunate to come into touch with artists of varied calibre and nature. I remember, we used to travel to far off places to stage the drama. At college, I once again came into contact with theatre lovers and kept getting a variety of roles in various theatre competitions. I was also very fond of mime where I felt the potential of an actor is put to the utmost challenge. It was while doing post-graduation in English at Pondicherry University that I got the best training in theatre. The drama department of Pondicherry University called SOPA (Shankaradas Swamigal School of Performing Arts) with exponents of Therukoothu and folk arts as faculty. Some of them had acted in films too. A friend once planned to make a stage adaptation of Herman Hesse’s renowned novel, Siddhartha and I played Buddha. It was an unforgettable experience as it blended music and stage movement so effectively to create the impact of a river on stage, the most abiding presence in the novel. It is here I started getting the initial insight into stage techniques. I later started experimenting on stage with humorous skits and serious themes, thus discovering my flair for writing and direction. I staged a musical adaptation of Edassery’s “Poothappattu” in my village along with a group of my friends, and there I learned more about direction and script writing from stage experience. The learning process continued when I started working in my school where I slowly discovered good sets of actors and technicians to give life to my ideas on stage.