Namaskara from Mysore! I'm Nandan, here to introduce myself.

Hello Steemians! My name is Nandan Achar. I'm from a small town called Somwarpet. It is in Coorg, India. But, right now I'm studying architecture in Mysore, India. !

Let me tell my story. I was 12 years old when I saw an episode of David Blaine's Street magic. I feel in love with the art form of performing magic. I used to lock myself in my room for hours and hours every day practicing tricks. Eventually, I started doing magic tricks everywhere streets, shops, bus stops.etc.

Here are a few couple of videos of me performing

Impressed?

This video is not for faint hearted.

My native language is Kannada. So, pardon my bad English.

Here's were my life took a turn.

About 4 years ago I wanted to become a chef and I joined a hotel management college. It was not what I expected and I dropped out. In India if you drop out of a college, you are treated as a criminal. I'm from a middle-class family which made it worse. Everyone thought I was stupid for dropping out of the college. My parents had spent a lot of money on me to join the college, but I dropped out. A lot of money got wasted. But, deep inside I knew this was not something I wanted to do for the rest of my life and only a small number of people understood this.

I didn't know what to do with my life. So, instead of sitting idol I joined Architecture. Again, It wasn't something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was terrible and I was sad. I had lost everything. I stopped doing magic. Magic was one thing which I love, But I lost interest in that also. I stopped doing it!

After months of being brain dead a senior of mine made me watch a movie, which inspired me a lot. The movie was.

I always liked movies but I had never considered making one. I thought it was very complicated and cost a lot of money. But, after watching "12 Angry Men", It changed my way of thinking. The movie is about 12 people discussing about a murder, but it blew my mind. How can something be so simple and be so elegant at the same time? There were no explosions or blockbuster elements the movie but it was better than anything I had watched before. I was hooked. There was something which was in front of me all this time that I had ignored. Movies!

I had a new interest in my life. Its been 3 years now. I have probably watched 500 movies last year. I watch one movie a day. I think movies are one of the greatest forms of magic. If magic is doing something impossible, Movies is something which makes the impossible look possible. I borrowed my friends camera and wrote a script in a few days and shot my first short film.

Its in Kannada language. But, I have subtitled it. I know its very bad. I was still learning. But, it was fun and I loved doing it. I wanted to do more.

So I decided not to drop out again. I decided to finish architecture and get a degree. Because, In India you need a degree.

And something big happened.

My aunt who lived in Dubai thought I was still into doing magic and suggested my name to an annual event the Indian community who live in Dubai organizes. The organizers agreed and I got a call from Dubai. I got invited to perform in Dubai!

But I hadn't practiced magic for almost a year. I was confused, What if I screw up? what if the show goes bad? I decided to go anyways because my expenses was taken care of and I had never been on an airplane too. Even if I screw up, It won't matter because I'm in Dubai. I mean who gets to go to Dubai free of cost.

I took out the box of magic props which was collecting dust under my bed. I stated practicing. My hands had become stiff because of not practicing. I couldn't few of the sleight of hand easily. But, somehow I prepared a show.

I went to Dubai. There were 500 people in the audience. My hands were shivering and I was sweating like anything. I performed, it was 10 minutes long. When the dust settled, everyone were applauding and whistling after my performance. I made like 500 fans that day. It was one of the most amazing thing that happen to me. It all came back!

I think I'll be contributing a lot of my creative works like films and magic videos here in my channel. I love my life more than ever. I don't think there a better platform than this to express myself.

Yours truly steemian

@nandan