Parvin Dabas was shy of girls

After studying at Modern School, Vasant Vihar, as a shyteenager, Parvin landed at Hansraj College in DU to study History. Even thoughhe refuses to tell us the exact year of his graduation, he does confess thatthose were the most “mixed” days of his life. Says Parvin,“Acting was only a hobby in college and I would do plays regularly. Butit’s only after I graduated, actually towards the end of my third year,that I decided to try out acting. After that I went to New York to learn actingand after finishing the course I came back to Delhi to start a theatre groupcalled the Urban Theatre Societyhere.”While in college, Parvin spent most of histime either playing basketball, attending classes or rehearsing for plays. Hesays, “I was basically a decent student and passed all three years. Infact, in the first year, I came third in class. But after that, it was downhill.But all of that was funtoo.”Parvin says he was very shy when it came to girls and oftenpretended not to hear them if they approached him. He says, “College dayswere very mixed – I was shy in front of girls and even with those Ididn’t know. I was only comfortable with people from the theatre group. Iwould run away from girls when they’d come to talk to me and often takerefuge in the library. At times I would pretend not to hear them. There was aparticular group of girls I’d run away from and once they cornered me whenI ran to the library and told me that they wouldn’t bite me! Many peopleused to mistake my shyness for arrogance, but it’s only an initialhesitance while getting to know people. I am still likethat.”Professor of English at Hansraj College, SanjayKumar, is quite a favourite with all his notable alumni who are now inBollywood. Be it Anurag and Abhinav Kashyap, or even Parvin, they are all stillin touch with him. In fact, SK, as he’s called, also acted inAnurag’s “Dev.D”. Parvin’s meeting with SK was a ratherfortunate accident, he says, adding, “There was a really pretty girl whowas my senior, who joined his play and so I also decided to join in – justfor a lark. She was the lark, you see. SK’s been a great guy and nowwe’ve became more of friends. In fact, I also showed him the script of mydirectorial debut and he really liked it. He even sent a few people forauditions.”Parvin says that there weren’t manyplaces to hang out after college at that time, so the canteen was a favouritehangout. He adds, “I didn’t have that much money either. We spentmost free time in the college canteen, or with friends in St Stephen’s.There was also Keventers in Kamla Nagar where we’d go formilkshakes.”Parvin’s most embarrassing memory from college is whenhe saw his father there. He says, “Imagine the contrast – in ClassXI, I got awarded for full attendance. In my first year, because of the wholehanging out ideology, I got a letter at my place for poor attendance. My daddidn’t tell me about the letter, but decided to pay the teachers a visit!Imagine my surprise when I saw him in college. I was just going past theprincipal’s office when I heard his voice saying, ‘That’shim’. And suddenly my principal called, ‘You boy, come here’.I got the dressing down of my life from the principal. That’s one thingfrom my college days that I will never forget.”In ParvinDabas’s directorial venture, which he shot in his college earlier thisyear, there’s a scene where the current principal of the college, Dr VKKawatra, is shown handing over certificates to students Follow us on Twitter for more stories