How many times have we actors heard these comments, and responded with smiling, noncommittal pleasantries, when all we have wanted to do is bash these people over the head with an 800-page script? Let's face it, we are a maligned and misunderstood breed. But comments like these do make me question why we are in perhaps the most thankless, gruelling and unstable profession that exists. We really are a tenacious lot. Each success like a De Niro or a Shah Rukh Khan is offset by thousands of struggling unknowns the world over, as yet untouched by fame and recognition,who battle on for years in penury, waiting with eternal optimism for that `one big break'. Why?

Acting is a soul-calling. Our whole being yearns to express ourselves, not on paper or through a successful business deal, but up there, under the footlights, in front of an audience or a camera, where we slip into a character not our own. We revel in his or her feelings, emotions and body language, and plunge into a journey through someone else's life experiences, which eventually become part of our own psyche. During this voyage, we come alive as we never do in our own existence, vibrating at a higher frequency. We work on so many overlapping levels: we are the actor and the character; we are on stage and yet in an imaginary setting; we are aware of the audience, the latecomer and the incessant ringing of mobile phones and yet we stay within the confines of what is happening in the character's life at that point of time; we are completely clued-in to the audience response (good or bad) and yet we hold themoment. Ask any actor -- the `high' of a successful performance, or the suicidal depths of despair after a `bomb' stays with us for hours. And either way, we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start all over again. Acting is a drug to which we are all addicted.

The Actor's Ego is a fragile one. We value honest criticism from those whose opinions we respect, and yet we are so easily bruised. Onstage, we strive for a healthy Actor's Ego -- the ability to be powerful, confident and to `take the stage', which we do by being focussed and in character, yet without upstaging others or attempting to steal the limelight. Offstage, all the veneer falls off, and we are a bundle of nerves. So please be gentle with us...

We are creatures of observation. In life, we watch others, and more often ourselves, for mannerisms, attitudes and emotional responses to situations, and immediately store these away in the vast cabinet of our brains, to use at a future point. Don't be intimidated by this. Nothing is noted asa personal criticism of who you are. It is all computerised for the next great role that we are going to play, and will not be a reflection of you, personally. Thankfully, this makes us quite non-judgemental as human beings.

We work a lot by instinct -- something that can never be taught, that ineffable quality that distinguishes the great from the competent. Instinct helps the actor discover the pulse of the character; what makes him tick, what his thought processes are, how he reacts and behaves under different circumstances.

But instinct alone is never enough. It fails us when we have had a bad day, or are simply `not in the mood'. That is where technique comes in. Technique can be school-taught or self-taught, through years of experience in the battle zone. This anchors us on bad nights, preventing a disastrous performance.

We strive for professionalism and total commitment. Backstage discipline, respecting other actors' performances and stage time, and fully understanding our responsibility to apaying audience out there, who have taken the trouble to come and see us. Years ago, I was working in a hilarious Bombay comedy, when my co-actor's mother died one morning. He was there that evening, despite the trauma -- the show must go on.

We are passionate about what we do, so intensely and fervently that nothing else in life seems as important to us.

So there you are. The portrait of an actor. A passionate, dedicated, hardworking, singleminded, creative and rather eccentric animal...please forgive us, love us a little, humour us, and understand that we haven't chosen this profession. It has chosen us.