Onto The Stage Slighted Souls And Other Stage Plays

by BS Murthy

  SEKHAR: The classic of an unfulfilled love.

  PRATAP: Pending the ending, our life had run the fictional course as we grew up together. Like Devadas and Parvathi we too became fond of each other and to the same affect. Vimala's dad said no, I got into depression and my uncle too me to the U.S. Devadas embraced Bacchus but I latched on to Mammon. But our beloveds got glued to their respective spouses. Now the story seems to fork. Devadas might've died unfulfilled but I’ve a possibility, of possession.

  SEKHAR: Is there a Chandramukhi you had spurned?

  PRATAP: If I were Devadas, I wouldn't have been a stupid to slight such a lover.

  SEKHAR: But you married any way.

  PRATAP: M y wife failed me emotionally and I dulled the pain with materialistic malady.

  SEKHAR: If I'm not curious ....

  PRATAP: M artha is her name and no faulting her. Why, she had her own expectations of life. We were childless, but that was not the hitch. Weil, there is a price to pay for the so-called progress. And that's interesting. What the primitive man could've expected from life than food and sex. M aybe they were better off for that.

  SEKHAR: Better off or worse off, what's life without progress. What more we had than a girl's furtive glance in our teens? See now, every fool has a girl friend. Oh, how I wish we were teens these days.

  PRATAP: But still parents remain spoilers.

  SEKHAR: At least not in the educated classes. Thank the laws; they are scared of saying no for the fear of being booked.

  PRATAP: What of women's lib?

  SEKHAR: Why, Vimala wears her bindi. She says husband's death can't take away woman's birth rights.

  PRATAP: A mate is a birth right too.

  SEKHAR: But I told you the hurdle is her daughter.

  PRATAP: I'm sure we can get her around.

  SEKHAR: It's hard as it is and ....

  PRATAP: It’s as if you're again it.

  SEKHAR: You may know Vimala doesn't share our materialistic ethos. If you marry her by miracle, you may not stick together for long. She would never cross our shores and you can't remain fish out of water here.

  PRATAP: M aybe so, but let me see what life has in store for us.

  SEKHAR: I don't see any scope for hope. You want to get into her ex's shoes. But Bhadru walked his life only in sandals, that too as an Engineer in the Department of Roads and Buildings. Bribe is more of a norm there than exception.

  PRATAP: I heard he was killed in a contrived road accident.

  SEKHAR: Well, he was known to take on the errant, that too head on. And a roguish contractor did him in a stage-managed road mishap.

  PRATAP: It’s said one's nature is one's fate.

  SEKHAR: Its other way round, mind goes the way fate takes it, buddhihi karmananusarine. PRATAP: It seems the Eastern and the Western philosophies are the obverse and the reverse of the same thought-coin.

  SEKHAR: And that shows in the ways and values of life.

  PRATAP: True, what are Vimala's ways and means?

  SEKHAR: They have an ancestral house in Himayatnagar and she helps run a small pickles unit.

  PRATAP: Nice simple living..

  SEKHAR: With high thinking. The pickles succor the family of their car driver. Sadly, he too died in the accident.

  PRATAP: He should've known, discretion is the better part of valour.

  SEKHAR: There you are. Your name symbolizes chivalry, but the same applies to you. Why burn your heart a second time with the same flame.

  PRATAP: That's all about first love, in my case, the only love.

  SEKHAR: Who knows, she too feels the same way.

  PRATAP: What makes you think so?

  SEKHAR: She's has agreed to go with us to Amalapuram.

  PRATAP: Oh really! When is it?

  SEKHAR: Day-after tomorrow's Gowthami Express.

  PRATAP: Don't you think it's encouraging?

  SEKHAR: What if it's for old time's sake.

  PRATAP: So be it. Art of life lies in making good of half chances. If we travel by car, I'll have more room to maneuver.

  SEKHAR: And I can see games lovers play.

  PRATAP: In the shadow of love on hold.

  SEKHAR: If she agrees we'll go the day-after tomorrow..

  PRATAP: Why not by the morrow.

  SEKHAR: What about your jet log?

  PRATAP: Isn't it a silly question?

  SEKHAR: Vimala may answer that better. Wish you a dreamy night.

  PRATAP: After all those dreary years. Thanks a lot.

  SEKHAR: Be ready by eight, bye.

  PRATAP: Wait.

  (PAUSE) This is a Rolexforyou to be on time.

  SEKHAR: Thank you, I'll cherish it.

  PRATAP: It’s my pleasure. These are for Vijaya and Suresh.

  SEKHAR: I’m glad. Good night, bye,

  SFX- Slamming sound of the door.

  SCENE-3

  EXT - Sekhar self-drives his sedan into the corridor of the Krishna Oberoi and as he gets out of it, a hotel staff drives it away. Sekhar goes into the hotel lounge and takes the elevator to make it to Pratap's room. SFX - Door buzzer followed by door opening.

  PRATAP: Has she agreed?

  SEKHAR: We're going to pick her up on the way.

  PRATAP: Can I thankyou enough?

  SEKHAR: No thanks, she didn't need any persuasion.

  PRATAP: What did she say?

  SEKHAR: She said she would join us, no more and no less.

  PRATAP: What of her tone?

  SEKHAR: Rather dry I suppose.

  PRATAP: Oh, come on, don’t tell me that.

  SEKHAR: Did you expect her to jump for joy or what?

  PRATAP: What to expect from the mistress when the messenger is so candid.

  SEKHAR: Anything but coyness. I shall tell her I didn't find you eager either. Why, I expected you in the lounge, waiting impatiently.

  PRATAP: Know I've been trying all my dresses on me.

  SEKHAR: Why bother about that, you don’t carry your age any way.

  PRATAP: Why don't you make her see me through your eyes?

  SEKHAR: You may be better off with her eyes.

  (PAUSE)

  PRATAP: Chalo, onto the un-chartered course of love.

  SFX - Sound track indicates the locking of the door, getting into and getting out of the elevator, opening of the car boot, opening and closure of the car doors and the speeding of the car.

  SEKHAR: Are you nervous or what?

  PRATAP: It's a flux of fact and fiction.

  SEKHAR: I feel she's also in a similar fix.

  PRATAP: (V.O. a car horn) Now I'm really nervous. Maybe, raised expectations, oh, what an irony life is!

  SEKHAR: Perhaps, I'm too practical to understand all that.

  PRATAP: Life worries you less as you miss much of it.

  SEKHAR: But business worries you no less PRATAP: But anxieties of love are wearisome.

  SEKHAR: Didn't Faiz say there are worries in life other than the love-induced and there are fulfillments too other than love-making.

  PRATAP: Maybe, but my festering love-wounds sorely need the balm of our union.

  SFX - The car comes to a halt.

  SEKHAR: We're at the ground zero.

  PRATAP: Thanks for bringing me this far.

  SEKHAR: Now it's for you to find the right entry.

  SFX - Indicative sounds of their car having come to a halt, Sekhar and Pratap were getting down from it.

  SCENE-4

  EXT - Sekhar and Pratap get down from the sedan near Vimala's house in Himayatnagar. Sekhar opens the iron-gate and they enter the compound.

  SEKHAR: Beware, Prati could be around.

  SFX - Sekhar presses the door buzzer and Vimala readily opens the door.

  (PAUSE)

  VIM ALA (OFF): He loves me still, his eyes show that.

  PRATAP (OFF): She's glad to see me, her face radiates!

  (PAUSE)

  VIMALA (OFF): Isn't he looking around for Bhadru's photograph, he's staring
at it, how his face has changed.

  SEKHAR: Hi, Prati, meet our classmate Pratap Varma, a U.S. citizen.

  PRATI: Hi uncle.

  PRATAP: Hi, I hear you're a nice girl.

  PRATI: Uncle, don't go by Sekhar uncle's words.

  PRATAP: What do you say Vimala?

  VIMALA: Nice but not easy.

  PRATI: Oh mummy.

  PRATAP: Why, that's the way it should be, given a little flexibility. (PAUSE) Will the mother and daughter do me an honour?

  VIMALA: I thought you are in the States, Pratap, not in Victorian England.

  PRATAP: Glad you've retained your spark. (PAUSE) Please let these Rolexes help you time your moments.

  (PAUSE)

  PRATI: Lovely it is, thanks uncle.

  VIM ALA: Thanks Pratap, it's nice of you.

  SEKHAR: It’s time we get started. Wish we could have taken Prati along but she would be a fish out of water. Who would have time for her chatting about our old times?

  PRATI: I'm glad mummy is making the trip. I was after her to go out a bit but she wouldn't listen.

  VIM ALA: Why not we have some filter coffee before we leave.

  PRATAP: I’ll have a mug-full. It is ages since I had any.

  VIM ALA: I've guessed that and got the decoction on hand.

  PRATI: Let me prepare mummy.

  VIM ALA: No, I’ve some scores to settle with Pratap.

  PRATAP: So, you haven't forgotten that. Prati, once I'd put salt into your mummy's coffee. You can payback later, but not now.

  VIM ALA: Okay, I’ll keep it on hold. But there is no escaping.

  PRATAP: I'll surrender my passport to you.

  VIM ALA: I'll serve you in flat five minutes. (OFF) It feels we've picked up where we'd left. (PAUSE)

  PRATAP: Prati, any idea of going to the U.Sfor higher studies?

  PRATI: No uncle. M y Hippocratic Oath is some time away. But mummy had already sworn me into Indian medical service.

  PRATAP: Nice but not easy, your mother is.

  VIM ALA: Sekhar, why didn't you tell me that Pratap runs an immigration agency in the U.S? I would have let a 'No-entry' board greet him.

  SFX - Indicative of Vimala serving them coffee.

  PRATAP: Jokes apart, with the right incentive, I'm a candidate for remigration.

  SEKHAR: Who won't welcome you with open arms?

  PRATAP: Don't be too sure my boy.

  VIMALA: I'm ready.

  SEKFIAR: To welcome or to leave.

  VIMALA: Both.

  PRATAP: Let me handle your luggage.

  VIMALA: Why bother?

  PRATAP: If age didn't wither you chivalry didn’t desert me.

  SEKFIAR: Vimala, oh, the same old Pratap for you.

  VIMALA: What to do, what can’t be cured should be endured.

  PRATAP: Am I supposed to take it as a compliment?

  PRATI: Thank you Pratap uncle, I've never seen mummy so lively.

  PRATAP: M aybe, old-timers meet ushers in new times.

  SFX - Indicative sounds of opening of the compound gate, the car boot and closing the same, the opening of the back door to facilitate Vimala's entry and closing it thereafter. Opening of the car front doors by Pratap and Sekhar and closing the same and the sound of ignition.

  VIM ALA: Prati dear, take care.

  PRATI: Wish you all a happy journey, bye.

  SEKHAR and PRATAP: Bye Prati.

  SFX - Indicative of the car speeding away.

  SCENE-5

  EXT - Journey by car with the hustle and bustle of the morning life in Hyderabad.

  PRATAP: Think about school times, you think of teachers' nicknames. Birada, Pakodi, kothhimeeri katta.

  VIM ALA: What about the nicknames you had for girls?

  PRATAP: I don't remember any but..

  VIMALA: Halwa.

  PRATAP: Are you still fond of it?

  VIM ALA: I've stopped having it.

  PRATAP: But why?

  VIMALA: Who was to tease me?

  (PAUSE)

  SEKHAR: Pratap, Rama Rao maastaru is keen on seeing you.

  PRATAP: I don’t know why, he thought I would come well in life.

  SEKHAR: And so it is.

  PRATAP: Yes and no.

  VIMALA: You've always been like that, 'yes and no'. Am I right?

  PRATAP: Yes and no, and I can't I fault you for thinking so.

  SEKHAR: Pratap, why talk in circles.

  PRATAP: Because I can’t be forthright.

  SEKHAR: What's the restraint?

  PRATAP: It's my constraint.

  SEKHAR: What is it?

  PRATAP: That I can’t tell you without being forthright.

  SEKHAR: Why back to square one via your nonsensical route.

  SFX - Car screeching to a halt.

  SEKHAR: Oh, what an ass he is? If he came under, I would've been hauled up for manslaughter not amounting to murder? Oh the goddamn legal jargon.

  PRATAP: Is the Indian road sense any less nonsensical? We've hardly clocked a kilometer and I'm already crazy really.

  SEKHAR: The chaos on the roads was no less yesterday.

  PRATAP: Wasn't my mind more chaotic yesterday?

  SEKHAR: Yes and no.

  VIM ALA: Pratap, he won't leave you till you commit yourself

  PRATAP: Okay then, bank deposits "yes", emotional withdrawals "no" and future course "don't know".

  SEKHAR: It's the way life these days. What do you say Vimala?

  VIM ALA: Ladies come last...

  PRATAP: With their last word.

  VIM ALA: Glad you haven't lost your wit a wee-bit.

  PRATAP: And you, your ability to appreciate.

  SEKHAR: Why make me feel left out?

  VIMALA: Are you not in the driver's seat.

  SFX -A lorry whizzes past.

  PRATAP: Ishedrunkorwhat?

  SEKHAR: Drink or no drink they drive insane.

  PRATAP: I've come here to mend my life, not to break my bones.

  VIMALA: Don't worry; if it comes to that I'll tend your bones.

  PRATAP: Won't I mend my life as you tend them?

  VIMALA: How am I to know?

  SEKHAR: You may know you're in safe hands.

  PRATAP: But still, we've a long way to go, to and fro.

  SEKHAR: Why worry, you'll get used to our traffic ways by then.

  PRATAP: Only to lose my way on the U.S. roads.

  VIMALA: But you said you would come back for good.

  PRATAP: That is, if I don't go back out of heart.

  SEKHAR: Vimala, have you ever heard of an Indian American discarding his suffix.

  PRATAP: Why do you prejudge to prejudice her mind?

  VIMALA: I've a mind of myown and you know that.

  PRATAP: But out of sight is out of mind.

  VIMALA: Not with the nursery to degree kind of ...well, I don't suffer from Alzheimer's disease, at least for now.

  PRATAP: I tell you those days make the almanac of my life.

  VIMALA: Well tucked in the attic to gather dust.

  PRATAP: I can't fault you for faulting me.

  VIMALA: That Houdini like vanishing act and the prodigal son like hibernation. What to make out of that?

  PRATAP: Silence of the lamb.

  (PAUSE)

  PRATAP: Let bygones be bygones, won't you let me dust my almanac.

  VIM ALA: You may need a broom for that. Wait till I fetch it.

  PRATAP: M eanwhile let me clear the air. I felt sorry for you when I heard about your tragedy

  VIMALA: (OFF) Hypocrite.

  PRATAP: I took the first available flight.

  VIMALA: I'm glad you care.

  PRATAP: I wish I were there right then.

  VIMALA: Maybe, it would have helped (PAUSE) or might not have. Now I’ve come to see it more as a tragedy of our country.

  PRATAP: When Sekhar told me about it, I too thought so. I'm ashamed for what the world thinks of us Indians.

  VIMALA: Why feel apologetic at all.
Why, was it any worse than the senseless outrages in the U.S campuses? Bhadru's killers had an ill-motive at least. But there, don't sick-minds routinely gun down the unwary. What a shame, the so-called gun culture.

  PRATAP: Leave alone the U.S., tell me what went wrong here.

  VIMALA: Blame the businessman, present company excluded.

  SEKHAR: I've my share of sins and there is no shying away from that.

  PRATAP: But give the devil where it is due. But for their enterprise India wouldn't have been what it is economically.

  VIMALA: It’s like not seeing the wood for the trees. It is they who corrupted our society and weakened its moral fabric.

  SEKHAR: What do you mean by that Vimala? It's the so-called government servants who started it all. Will they ever touch a file without greasing their palms? If I'm right, Nehru said that bribes act like lubricants in the smooth running of the government machinery. And what's his daughter’s take on corruption? Didn't Indira Gandhi say it was a global phenomenon? M ind you, both of them together ruled the country for the best part after independence, what do you say about it?

  VIMALA: Well, the need to bribe the black sheep is not same as corrupting the entire flock. That's what the business community did over the years. Who hasn't heard of their bribe talk, khushi se dete hai or sabhi lete hai and such? Bhadru used to say only ten percent officials were corrupt in the seventies. I need not tell you less than ten percent could be honest now.

  PRATAP: What do you say Sekhar?

  SEKHAR: In hind sight, I thinkshe is right.

  VIM ALA: Seems we've lost the foresight forever.

  PRATAP: What about having some garam chai to rev up a little.

  VIMALA: Why not, we've a dhabha nearby.

  (PAUSE)

  SFX - Indicative of the car being parked near an open air eatery and the passengers alighting from the same.

  SCENE-6

  EXT - Pratap, Sekhar and Vimala take their chairs at a table in the open VIM ALA: Sekhar will you find out if there is a toilet somewhere here.

  SEKHAR: Wait, let me go and check up.

  (PAUSE)

  PRATAP: How can you think of a passable loo in this filthy place?

  VIMALA: I understand your obsession for cleanliness. But if you focus on what is lacking, you lose sight of all that is different.

  PRATAP: Now I realize, much of your appeal is the way you think.

  VIM ALA: Are you dismissing me as a bluestocking?

  PRATAP: Won't my body language answer that.