I was terrified of the stage as a young kid.

I recall my first stage appearance back in Class 6th or 7th, when I was to recite a poem as part of a recital competition.

I went up on stage, nervous, blurted my lines and felt relieved at the end of it. It didn’t strike me that there was no response from the audience, after I had delivered my recital.

I couldn’t care less, frankly. When I got back to my seat, my fellow student asked, “what was that?”

“What was what?”, I asked.

“No words came out of your mouth. It was moving, but there was no sound at all.”

Cut to this day, most audiences when they hear me often very kindly say