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

University here.

SFX - Their car drives into the corridor of the Krishna Oberoi. Sekhar and Pratap come out of the car as the latter’s luggage was picked up by the chauffeur.

 

SCENE -  2

 

EXT - Sekhar and Pratap and go up to the reception at the Krishna Oberoi and the receptionist allots Room No. 303 to Pratap. The hotel attendant transports the luggage as the friends go up to the elevator. Once out of the elevator at the third floor, they all reach Room No. 303. 

INT – The attendant opens the door and Pratap and Sekhar go in. As the attendant leaves the room, the friends settle down.

b/g – Sound track of classical instrumental music.

PRATAP: Oh, what a hotel. 

SEKHAR: They say it’s the best.

PRATAP: To begin the stay with Glenfiddich.

SEKHAR: Welcome toast from a U.S. citizen 

SFX - Setting the table for a drink and the creaking sound of breaking the seal of Glenfiddich bottle. Clinking sound of glass as the friends set out to drink.

PRATAP: Cheers to Mera Bharat Mahan. 

SEKHAR: Cheers to P.V the P.M. who made it possible.

PRATAP: Why disjoint the mind Manmohan Sing?

SEKHAR: What to cheer about him now?

PRATAP: Why?

SEKHAR: Means you’re not up to date. P.V’s chela is now Sonia’s chamcha.   

PRATAP: Politics can wait tell me all about you.

SEKHAR: Why the protocol of a hypocrite. Let’s begin with Vimala.

PRATAP: Oh, you.

SEKHAR: Enough of close to the chest, show your love-card. 

PRATAP: Printed in the press of Sarat’s Devadas.

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: My wife failed me emotionally and I dulled the pain with   materialistic malady.  

SEKHAR: If I’m not curious ….

PRATAP: Martha is her name and no faulting her. Why, she had her own expectations of life. We were childless, but that was not the hitch. Well, 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. Maybe 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: Maybe 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 Rolex for you 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 thank you 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)

VIMALA (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.

VIMALA: 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.

VIMALA: Why not we have some filter coffee before we leave.

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

VIMALA: I’ve guessed that and got the decoction on hand.

PRATI: Let me prepare mummy.

VIMALA: 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. 

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

PRATAP: I’ll surrender my passport to you.

VIMALA: 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.S for higher studies?

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

PRATAP: Nice but not easy, your mother is.

VIMALA: 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.

SEKHAR: 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.

SEKHAR: 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: Maybe, 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.

VIMALA: 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. 

VIMALA: What about the nicknames you had for girls?

PRATAP: I don’t remember any but..

VIMALA: Halwa.

PRATAP: Are you still fond of it?

VIMALA: 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