Onto the Stage - Slighted Souls and other stage and radio plays by BS Murthy (ebook reader web TXT) 📖

how piteous is the ping-pong, at least in tennis, the balls are bigger and get respite. And savage is the squash, what do you say?

Navya: Oh, stop it Sir.

[Navya tries to get up and Sanjay nudges her back into the chair.]

Sanjay: I’m glad you want the balls are handled better than that. Why, volleyball is a via media. A dozen men get to handle the ball and scores of them voyeur. If the dames are at it, two dozen balls get agitated as well. What with those bikinis, won’t the sight get better in the beach volleyball? But it’s the rough and tough rugby that is true to life as it allows men to hug the ball. Wonder how in football it’s a foul to handle the ball. But it’s cricket that is sexy with its field placements like say, no cover, no extra cover while there is a deep gully between two fine legs.

Navya: It’s all foul Sir.

Sanjay: Talk about foul and nothing to beat caroms at it. Why, with four holes to fill, there is no peg on board.

Navya: Stop it Mister. [She gets up]

Sanjay: Well, Sir to Mister is one step closer, isn’t it? Call me Sanjay and we would leap frog to it, won’t we?

Navya: After all, there is a limit. [She goes back to her seat in a huff.]

[Sanjay picks up a note book and begins to sketch Navya and having finished the drawing, he calls her on the intercom (mime). Navya goes back to into Sanjay’s chamber.]

Navya: Yes.

Sanjay: Is Her Ladyship an artist?

Navya: So, if not harassment it should be mocking then.

Sanjay: Given your lovely fingers, I guess you could be one.

Navya: I am not, is it okay?

Sanjay: Still you could be an art lover. [He gives her the sketch book] Judge this one.

Navya: [Holding the sketch book] I take objection to this.

Sanjay: I don’t blame you for that but you won’t be complaining if only you model in nude. How else can I do justice to your figure?

[Navya slowly but deliberately begins to slide her pallu. Sanjay looks at her bulging blouse in heightened anticipation and she holds it back coquettishly. Sanjay goes nearer to her and Navya, feigning to protect her self, puts her hand into her blouse. [She presses the button to stop the recording and then another to start rewinding the tape in the audience view]. Sanjay looks in wonderment as Navya drops her pallu exposing her valley to him.]

Sanjay: What a valley!

Navya: Of your fall.

[Navya pulls out a pocket tape recorder from within her blouse. As Sanjay stands stunned, Navya pulls her pallu back over her blouse. Recovering himself, Sanajy tries to grab the tape recorder from her hand. Navya pushes Sanjay with all her strength and he falls on the floor. Navya plays the tape recorder. Sanjay gets up from the floor and attempts to grab it from her. She runs out of the place leaving him stunned and worried. Curtains down.]

Scene – 9

[Curtains up: Split setting of the office of Skins & Hides Ltd. Cabin of the Finance Manager on the left and the Finance Department on the right. Diwakar is in the cabin with Rachana. Kumar sits in the office portion. Rachana comes out of the cabin and takes her seat at the adjacent table to Kumar’s. The clock (not in the scene) strikes four.

Rachana: How I wish every boss is like our boss.

Kumar: May I know what you saw in him that we failed to see all these years.

Rachana: He doesn’t misbehave with women.

Kumar: What a simpleton you are.

Rachana: It’s no flattering.

Kumar: I think its early days for that [He smiles.]

Rachana: [Though pleased, she tries to hide her feelings.]

Kumar: Once I overheard a conversation between an old woman and a young girl. Well, they were egg vendors at our hostel mess. When the young thing said that boys misbehave with her, the oldie averred they were all nice to her. [Laughs]

Rachana: It’s insulting.

Kumar: What if I say you are terrific.

Rachana: Won’t I complain of harassment?

Kumar: That’s what Deepti did when the boss lost his eyes for her. But the only difference was she carried the complaint to his wife and that was that. Well, he acquired the look of a castrated bull after that. Deepti resigned having had her last laugh but his wife got a couple of surveillance cameras installed in his cabin. I suppose to be doubly sure.

Rachana: Don’t joke.

Kumar: It’s no joke that it pays to report on man’s womanizing ways to his wife. Wonder why women won’t realize that.

Rachana: Give me your wife’s number, just in case.

Kumar: She’s going to welcome your call.

Rachana: But why, if it’s not a joke.

Kumar: You will know when we get close.

Rachana: How clever, incite a woman’s curiosity to induce her to come closer

Kumar: It’s for the woman to choose to be or not to be. But why should I open my life to someone not closer to me.

Rachana: Looks like you are a seasoned hand.

Kumar: I can vouch that I’m thirty-five and no less.

Rachana: I think there is lot that one can learn from you.

Kumar: One needn’t come close to me for that.

[Diwakar talks to Kumar on intercom (mime). Kumar takes the file to Diwakar. Rachana watches Kumar as Diwakar pulls him up [mime] Kumar goes back to his seat.]

Rachana: I could see that boss is annoyed with you.

Kumar: Of what avail being a boss if he won’t pull subordinates for his shortcomings.

Rachana: Maybe he’s jealous.

Kumar: You give me cause to complain.

Rachana: Why do you think so?

Kumar: Is it not inducing womanizing.

Rachana: Jokes apart, what it is all about.

Kumar: Take men as sperms and women as eggs, as you should, and it’s the Sperm-egg Syndrome that governs the male female attitudes. Like hordes of sperms seek a single egg, scores of men chase a desirable woman. As with eggs, so with women, having taken one, they would ignore others. But like an odd egg that lets in multiple sperms, some women revel in multiple partners.

Rachana: What are you suggesting?

Kumar: It’ natural for men to besiege a desirable dame and it’s for her to let the superfluous suitors pass by.

Rachana: Why it’s but shifting the onus on women.

[Diwakar with some files in hand reaches them.]

Diwakar: Kumar hold the fort till I come back. .

Kumar: Yes Sir.

[Exit: Diwakar.]

Kumar: Picking up the threads from where we left them, there was an episode which proves that men are far too ill-equipped to guard against scheming women.

Rachana: What is that?

Kumar: There was a lady clerk in the marketing department who was a past master of soft sell. It was her tactic to let the targeted man know that she was short of money. What with the man perceiving her as vulnerable, she starts flirting with him to begin fleecing him in time. Well, all the while keeping him at an arms length. But were he to tighten his purse strings in frustration, she invites him home insinuating her willingness.

Rachana: What next?

Kumar: When he goes to her in heightened anticipation, she would introduce her mother-in-law who supposedly came on an unscheduled visit. Having proved her intent to grant him, she would fleece him before a couple of repeats give her game away to him. When she picks up a new prey, the wounded keeps mum for fear of being ridiculed. It went on for a year before she was exposed. But before that, she induced Diwakar’s predecessor to sanction a departmental loan of two lakhs and stand guarantee for her. And the matter is in the court now.

Rachana: But who belled the cat.

Kumar: I don’t believe in being boastful.

Rachana: I thought you are a gentleman.

Kumar: What if I’m a ladies man.

Rachana: It’s shameful being a married man.

Kumar: How women bemoan if marriage turns man into half a man.

Rachana: There is no winning an argument with you.

Kumar: Why, you are a wonderful conversationalist.

Rachana: What’s her name?

Kumar: Who’s name, my wife’s or the one I crave.

Kumar: Mind the tense, Mr.?

Kumar: She is ever evocative.

Rachana: Oh, you are impossible.

Kumar: But I do see possibilities.

Rachana: [Smiles.] Won’t the soft-pedaling be harder on women than the hard sell?

Kumar: How am I to know?

Rachana: Wait till I figure it out.

[The clock (not in the scene) strikes five and they get ready to go.]

[Enter: Diwakar and he talks to Kumar and Rachana (mime). He goes into his chamber, picks up his briefcase and lunch box and comes out. Kumar too picks up his briefcase and lunch box while Rachana keeps her lunch boxes in her handbag.]

[Exit: The three of them. Curtains down.]

Scene – 10

[Curtains up: Split setting of the office of Bricks & Bats. In the conference room [right portion] Naveen, Manager, Materials, is deposing before the Complaints Committee on the sexual harassment at the workplace [mime]. In the left portion is Divya.]

[Enter: Navya and goes to the reception desk.]

Navya: Miss, I’m Navya from MAWAH. I would like to meet your Managing Director.

Divya: Well he is out of station and is expected only the next week..

Navya: [Hands over her business card.] I am from a NGO dealing with sexual harassment at the workplace. Maybe I can see the Personnel manager.

Divya: [Divya glances at Navya’s business card.] What a coincidence! Right now the Complaints Committee is hearing a case.

Navya: Oh, really. Is there anyone from a NGO?

Divya: I don’t think so.

Navya: Then why not send my card to the concerned person.

Divya: Let me see if she would like to see you now.

[As Navya is seated in the visitors’ sofa, Divya goes into the conference room with Navya’s business card. When Divya gives the card to the lady heading the complaints committee, she is seen talking to the others [mime] A perplexed Naveen comes out of the conference hall and goes up to Navya.]

Naveen: Believe me, it was all false.

Navya: [surprised.] What is it about?

Naveen: I thought you got wind of Mithuna’s complaint against me.

Navya: So you lead a double life.

Naveen: I’ll explain everything.

Navya: You should have done that before.

Naveen: I didn’t want to upset you dear.

Navya: Now you made it worse for me.

Naveen: Bear with me, I’ll tell them and come.

[As Naveen goes into the conference room, Divya comes out of it. As Naveen explains things to his colleagues [mime] they wear a surprised look. At the same time, Navya is seen talking to Divya [mine]. Even as Naveen comes out of the chamber, Navya storms out of the office. A stunned Naveen follows her. [Curtains down.]

Scene - 11

[Curtains up: In her drawing room that evening, Rekha in serious discussion with Rachana (mime). The clock (not in the scene) strikes six.]

[Enter: Navya (with a suitcase in each hand) with Ranjan and Nrupa]

Rekha: Is it miya bibi jhagada or what?

Navya: It’s no mere jhagada, its jeopardy.

Rachana: Why what happened?

Rekha: Naveen has thrown me into a dilemma.

Rekha: So has Kumar our Rachana.

Navya: Who is that?

Rekha: The Cupid at her office

Navya: Why is it an unrequited love?

Rekha: He’s already married.

Navya: Oh how men mislead women

Rekha: Is Naveen cheating on you or what?

Navya: If that’s the case, I would have been sulking at home hoping that man always comes back to his wife.

Rachana: What then?

Navya: He was harassing a woman at his office.

Rachana: Oh God, I can understand your dilemma. But what’s his version?

Navya: I think his was a partial confession. As coincidences go, he met Mithuna that is her name, on the very day we met. He did admit that he coveted her bowled over by her charms. When he realized she was a flirt, he says that his ardour for her evaporated. But when she shifted gear and began flirting with one and all he saw it was telling upon their performance. Well, the complaints committee upheld his stance that she fixed him as he tried to discipline her and the management fired her.

Rachana: What’s the dilemma then?

Navya: After Nritya affair, I’m not going to believe the verdict of any committee. Why, he would have complained against her when she didn’t yield to his advances. Besides, having put Sanjay on the