Onto the Stage - Slighted Souls and other stage and radio plays by BS Murthy (speed reading book .TXT) 📕

call Nayak on his cell phone but the line is ever engaged.]

Rajiv: Don’t you think in use phones measure the ongoing gossip in society.

Slesha: By any chance, is your wife a gossiping type?

Rajiv: One may say she’s a gospel type.

[Enter: Rangaiah]

[Rangaiah hands over a business card and tells Rajiv that Rau had come to see him (mime).]

Rajiv: Think of the devil and here it comes. Would you please excuse me for a moment?

[Slesha nods her assent.]

[Exit: Rajiv with Rangaiah.]

Rajiv (voice over): Congrats Rau my old boy! Let me take a hard look at the justice in the making. Why, you haven’t changed a wee bit really! Why, I would’ve recognized you in a crowd. Though I’m expecting you, it’s Godsend in a way. I’m in a soup right now, well, not the one your client is brewing for me. Won’t you help me for old-time’s sake?

Rau (voice over): Why, what’s the other bother?

Rajiv (voice over): I can be booked for rape anytime now.

Rau (voice over): Oh God, but how come!

Rajiv (voice over): I’ll tell you but first help me see the back of my tormentor.

[Enter: Rau (in lawyer’s suit) led by Rajiv.]

Rau [to Slesha]: You here!

Rajiv: Do you know her!

Rau: Well, as much as a man would know his wife, no more and no less.

Rajiv: Nothing is truer than fact being stranger than fiction, isn’t it?

Slesha: Maybe, but can I take it Mr. Rajiv, that you’ve engaged a lawyer in advance anticipating the complaint?

Rajiv: Come on Inspector, you know that’s not the case. Wouldn’t you know that your husband and I haven’t seen each other for ages?

Slesha: Lawyer garu, is it such a coincidence that you come to see your long lost friend when I’m acting on a complaint of rape against him!

Rau: So what?

Slesha: How does that answers my question?

Rau: What if it doesn’t?

Slesha: Don’t you know criminal investigation warrants citizens’ cooperation?

Rau: I came to see him at his wife’s behest.

Slesha: Is it for negotiating the terms of separation?

Rau: I can’t satisfy your curiosity as it’s a matter of client confidentiality.

Slesha: We will come to that later. [Turns to Rajiv] I would like to talk to your wife.

Rajiv: She’s not at home.

Slesha: Can’t I guess that much. Where is she now?

Rajiv: I don’t know about it myself.

Slesha: So, the plot thickens even more, isn’t it? Is it possible that after raping your friend’s wife, you had murdered yours to eliminate the witness to your crime?

Rau: Inspector, don’t let your imagination run amuck. Know she’s very much alive and kicking.

Slesha: Put her on the line then.

[Rau pulls out his cell phone and Slesha on a second thought stops him in his tracks.]

Slesha: I want Mr. Rajiv to talk to her on his cell.

Rau: What’s the hitch if I contact her myself?

Slesha: I’ve my reasons for wanting him to do that.

[Rajiv tries to contact Ramya on his cell phone but she doesn’t answer his calls.]

Slesha: Don’t I see, she’s not receiving your calls. Why this estrangement?

Rau: An unanswered telephone call is no proof of a marital discord.

Slesha: What if she’s cut up with him because of the alleged rape.

Rau: It’s for the police to find that out, isn’t it? But I expect you to respect my client’s right for silence on this issue.

Slesha: Dear lawyer garu, habits seem to die hard. Why put the cart before the horse. Don’t you know the matter is still under investigation and is yet to be committed to trial? [Turning to Rajiv] Is your wife estranged from you because you had raped Ms. Divya?

Rau: When he didn’t even admit to the alleged rape, your question doesn’t brook an answer, does it?

Slesha: Oh I see. But he can guess nevertheless?

Rau: But guesswork makes no evidence, does it?

Slesha [turns to Rajiv]: Do you admit to your estrangement?

Rajiv: It’s just a storm in our marital teacup.

Slesha: What was the cause of it?

[Rajiv contemplates for an answer.]

Rau: Why not elicit that from Ramya? I can ask her to come now.

Slesha [checking up with her wristwatch]: Ask her how long it would take her.

[Rau makes contact with Ramya and talks to her (mime).]

Rau: She said she would be here in half an hour.

Slesha [to Rajiv]: Meanwhile, I would like to go over the alleged crime scene. Do you insist on a search warrant?

Rajiv: Please, I’ve nothing to hide anyway.

[Slesha goes into the bedroom leaving Rajiv and Rau. While Slesha was at work in the bedroom Rajiv and Rau deliberate.]

Rajiv: If not for you, I wouldn’t have any respite from your wife.

Rau: It’s just a case of lawyer’s instincts at work and no more.

Rajiv: Maybe it’s a straw but it still carries hope, does it not?

Rau: I’m sorry I can’t be of much help to you. Don’t you see my wife hasn’t finished as yet and your wife too has some unfinished business with you?

Rajiv: I know I’ve no right to expect either.

Rau: But still, for old time’s sake, I’ll get you an ace lawyer to handle the rape case.

Rajiv: Don’t bother about that as I am seeing life in a fresh light. Why, the worst of fates cannot be worse than my wasted past. If only I could relive my past, I would never lose a friend like you at the threshold of life? I know it’s neither here nor there but whatever comes now, I’ll take it in my stride rather stoically.

[As Slesha joins them with a folded bedspread in her hand, Rau’s cell phone rings and he answers the call (mime).]

Rau: Ramya says she got stuck in a traffic jam.

Slesha: Oh damn it; I’ve only half an hour to spare.

Rau: What if she calls on you later?

Slesha: No, let her wait here for me.

Rau: My client may not prefer that.

Slesha: Is it okay if we meet here in two hours from now?

Rau: That gives me time to brief her about the developments.

Slesha: Oh the way you lawyers help your clients is nothing but unlawful.

Rau: Whatever, it’s permissible under the law, isn’t it?

Slesha: When was it a policewoman won an argument with a lawyer husband?

Rau: Well, on your cue, I’ll make it with my client.

Slesha: By the way, Mr. Rajiv, did you realize that you haven’t denied Ms. Divya’s accusation?

[Exit: Slesha and Rau leaving Rajiv in contemplation.]

[Curtains down.]

Scene - 7

 

[Curtains Up: Rajiv in disarray in the drawing room. After a short while Rangaiah brings some tea from the backstage.]

Rajiv: Rangaiah, what a quick fall after a slow raise! Or is it a slow fall from a stable life? Whatever, it was my ambition that has undone me. No, it was my greed that was the culprit. Well, aren’t ambition and greed the two sides of the coin of success? So what difference does that make anyway, either way? How my quest for success made me mean to bring about my ruin in the end? How Ramya used to caution me against it by counseling contentment. If only I paid heed to her ardent pleas, my life wouldn’t have come to this sorry pass. Didn’t Rau condescend to descend at my comeuppance? Or am I still wearing my blinkers for failing to see his empathy for me?

[Rajiv begins to sip from the cup.]

Rangaiah: Rajiv babu, my sixth sense tells me that all would end well

Rajiv: But is it not clear I’m going to end up in jail. How am I to live with my guilt and bear the shame as well? Maybe it could be different with Ramya’s support? Now that she has chosen to unyoke her life from mine, how am I to endure the terminal pains for the rest of my life?

Rangaiah: Once Ramya beti notices the change in you everything would change.

Rajiv: But sadly I’ve pushed her beyond the point of no return. More than my abominable offence, the deceitful way in which I had committed it might have broken her heart.

Rangaiah: I don’t know why but I’m still hopeful.

[Exit: Rangaiah.]

[Rajiv in contemplation paces up and down the room for a while and settles at the desk and pens a letter and reads it aloud.]

“Dear Divya

Oh how fate had contrived with my ambition to make you a victim of my pique. What irony that I should’ve felt robbed by Deva when I was myself trying to loot Sampath! What perversion to hurt you to redress my own hurt. That’s the ironic tragedy of my final fall!

It pains me even more that I failed to give a thought to what Nayak said only a few days back. Didn’t he tell someone had felt that life becomes unimaginably confused when we think of ourselves but it becomes very simple when we think in terms of helping others? Now that I missed out on life, what death would hold for me? Why wouldn’t it become simpler if I were to erase someone else’s shame through it? Won’t my end help the two women I had wronged begin life afresh? It would for sure. Isn’t the very thought impelling me to embrace death.

I suggest that you too should see the past in a fresh light. Why feel humiliated thinking about the old fiend who had hurt you. Why not let the pristine soul of the dead Rajiv elevate your life.  Well, to begin with, it may seem hard to believe but if you dwell upon the difference, it would be easy to grasp the nuances of it.Forget the old fiend and forgive the new soul for denying you. Rajiv.”

[Rajiv hails for Rangaiah]

[Enter: Rangaiah. Rajiv wants him to deliver it to Divya (mime).]

[Exit: Rangaiah with the letter. Rajiv paces up and down and ensures that Rangaiah had left the place. He was about to enter the bedroom.]

[Enter: Ramya and Rau and Rajiv turns back.]

Rajiv: Ramya, you may relieve Rau as any way I’m going to release you. Well, my trial is over in my court of conscience and I need your pardon as I undergo the punishment. 

Ramya: It’s easier asked than given. How is your change of heart going to redress my hurt and her shame? Whatever, I’m at a loss to react to your self-discovery after ruining three lives including yours. I wonder how I can help you rebuild your life when the next fourteen years of it is going to be behind the bars.

Rau: Not if you withdraw your plaint, I can take up his case to ensure that he walks out a free man at the first hearing itself. Why, his confession to Slesha is worthy of the court dustbin and no more. Any district court lawyer would make out a case of consensual sex given the familiarity the family friendship had bred.  

Rajiv: Oh stop it my friend. I was mad to violate her chastity but I won’t be mean to slur her character to save my skin.

Rau: So be it if you are prepared to spend your life in jail losing your wife as well.

Rajiv: So what. If Ramya forgives me, won’t my penitence in jail make our reunion sublime in the end?

Ramya: That only means you want me to languish as your chaste wife all the while. 

Rajiv: I’m sorry; I’ve failed to see it from your point of view.

[Rajiv goes into the bedroom and locks the door. Ramya and Rau suspecting the untoward frantically knock at the door and plead with him to come out (mime). Rajiv pulls out the revolver from underneath the bed.]

[Enter: Slesha.]

[She takes out the bullets from her shirt pocket and shows them to Ramya and Rau. Rajiv comes out of the bedroom and sees the bullets in Slesha’s hand.]

Rajiv: Oh what a life that won’t let me die even. Why am I not dying out of shame having been caught in the act? 

Slesha: Why, from the look of you I knew you would push yourself over the precipice and so I had emptied the cartridge. 

Rajiv: If only you could have visualized the impending joy of dying in my face as I clicked the revolver, I’m sure you wouldn’t have tried to stop me from dying.

Slesha: Can’t I feel your misery from the