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

distress sale. But as he is desperate to run the show, I asked him to try his luck with Deva.

Rajiv: What a double-cross it is Nayak? Having sent Sampath to deal with Deva, you’ve come to see my defeat, isn’t it? But mind you, being my chela, Deva won’t fall for the bait. He knows how keen I am about this.

Nayak: Sorry, you got it all wrong Rajiv. I could have conveyed Sampath’s mind to you over phone itself. But I’ve come here only to make your disappointment less hard to digest. Well, if my memory serves me right its Musil who said that life becomes unimaginably confused when we think of ourselves but it becomes very simple when we think in terms of helping others.

Rajiv: Maybe that’s the philosophy for philanthropists but do realize businessmen are made of a sterner stuff. I hope you would agree that I will find it hard to forgive you.

[Rajiv goes into the bedroom and lies on the bed.]

[Exit: Nayak leaving a perplexed Ramya.]

Ramya: Life becomes unimaginably confused when we think of ourselves but it becomes very simple when we think in terms of helping others. Oh, how beautifully said. Well, would Rajiv ever realize that?

[Curtains down.]

Scene – 3

 

[Curtains Up: A morose Rajiv and a concerned Ramya in their drawing room.]

Ramya: Since there is no word from Deva, maybe all is not lost.

Rajiv: My worry is not about Deva. I’m only wondering how to bring Sampath around.

Ramya: After all, it’s another day. Won’t a little give and take sort this out?

Rajiv: Do you want me to walk the halfway street all my life.

Ramya: What can be done when life bars one from its highways?

Rajiv: Why not take a detour to destiny?

Ramya: Its better that you stick to the road of contentment.

Rajiv: I’m sick and tired of you and your sermons. Won’t the so-called contented deride success from their rooftops of inadequacy. What hypocrisy, sour grapes. Scratch their surface and you will find layers of limitations. That’s why contentment is nothing but conceding ones’ limitations.

[Ramya answers an incoming call on her cell phone.]

Ramya: Hi Divya?

Divya (voice over): Are you at home.

Ramya: Very much, what’s the matter?

Divya (voice over): We’ve something to tell you.

Ramya: Missed your periods or what?

Divya (voice over): You know its no more do ya teen but ek ya do.

Ramya: After gems of twins, you don’t need any more, do you?

[Switching off the phone, Ramya turns to Rajiv.]

Rajiv: So, my chela has snubbed Sampath. It would serve Nayak as well.

Ramya: Chela or not, Deva is a gem.

Rajiv: Why, you always side with him.

Ramya: Because I find him sensible.

Rajiv: Why not say he’s your contented classmate?

Ramya: So be it but why forget Divya. Are they any losers?

[Enter: Deva and Divya.]

Rajiv: Don’t you look buoyed?

Divya: Is it so? I thought I’ve taken it in my stride.

Rajiv: What’s up your sleeve anyway?

Deva: So to say, it’s no more than your leavings.

Rajiv: Why talk in circles?

Deva: It’s about Sampath’s offer.

Rajiv: Don’t you know I am not yet through with it?

Deva: But Nayak said you were not for it!

Rajiv: Why didn’t you check up with me?

Deva: Nayak is your own man, isn’t he?

Rajiv: So are you, aren’t you?

Deva: Why doubt?

Rajiv: But still you undermine me, don’t you?

Deva: No. I just want to sail on a deserted ship.

Rajiv: You thought I’m naïve to miss the voyage myself.

Deva: Maybe you’ve a different agenda.

Rajiv: Why don’t you say I’m a grabber?

Ramya: What happened to you Rajiv? Won’t you stop now?

Rajiv: Didn’t you hear me tell Nayak that Deva wouldn’t go against me. Won’t he have the last laugh? Oh what would he think of me now? A boastful bastard at the very least, isn’t it? [Turns to Deva] You know I always believed you are my own man. How could you let me down?

Deva: Had you told me, I would’ve dropped the deal like a hot brick.

Rajiv: don’t you know loyalty is not begged.

Ramya: Is it his fault that you took him for granted.

Deva [to Rajiv]: I will stand by you if you get right back into the act.

Rajiv: Unless you tell him you are out of it, he’s no fool to come around to me.

Deva: Why not go by his terms. I think he’s more than reasonable.

Rajiv: So you think I’m unreasonable, don’t you?

Deva: Rajiv for God’s sake why not sort it out with him and be done with it.

Rajiv: Is it that you don’t want to let it go on your own?

Deva: Why don’t you understand? Won’t I lose my face if I backtrack now?

Rajiv: Don’t you owe it to me to save my face, though late?

Deva: Yes my friend, but not at the cost of my credibility.

Rajiv: Why don’t you say you don’t want to lose the bonanza?

Deva: If it were the case, why didn’t you grab it in the first place?

Rajiv: Because I couldn’t foresee you stabbing in my back.

Divya: Oh, how could you be so unkind to him!

Ramya: Rajiv, you’re being petty really.

Rajiv: Et tu, Ramya. What an unkindly cut from my wife in support of another man.

Deva: Divya, let’s go before we make it worse for her.

Ramya: What is left for him to shame me more?

Rajiv: You would know after they leave. [Turns to Deva] If only you had shown half the concern to your friend as you bear to his wife, things wouldn’t have come to this pass.

[Exit: Deva and Divya followed by Ramya.]

[Rajiv goes to the backstage.]

Ramya (voice over): Sorry Deva, it’s just his pique at work and it would pass.

Deva (voice over): Ramya, let’s leave it at that. Good night.

Ramya (voice over): Good night Deva.

[Rajiv reappears with a Whisky bottle, a water bottle and a glass tumbler.]

[Rajiv begins to mix his drink.]

Divya (voice over): Ramya, see you tomorrow. Good night.

Ramya (voice over): Bye Divya.

[Enter: Ramya and walks past Rajiv.]

Rajiv: Isn’t it strange that you’re less concerned about your husband than about his friend?

Ramya: You don’t seem to know how insane you’ve become.

[Ramya goes into the bedroom and Rajiv continues to drink in the drawing room.]

[Curtains down.]

Scene - 4

 

[Curtains up: Rajiv and Ramya are in deep sleep in their bedroom.]

[The alarm clock strikes twelve times, Ramya gets up languidly and goes backstage. Shortly thereafter, she returns with a cup of coffee and goes up to Rajiv.]

Ramya [at the entrance to the bedroom]: Bed coffee, hot coffee for a hothead.

[As Rajiv doesn’t stir, Ramya keeps the coffee cup on a side table. She sits on the cot beside Rajiv.]

Ramya: Get up man.

[Rajiv doesn’t respond. Ramya prods at him and realizes he is dead.]

Ramya: Oh, how sad he has died before he could find his lost soul. But could he have redeemed it had he lived any longer? Unlikely, isn’t it? Its better he died than lived on to abuse my life more than ever.

[Ramya makes a few calls on her cell phone (mime). Then she clings on to Rajiv’s body and yells for Rangaiah.]

[Enter: Rangaiah.]

Ramya: See how he has orphaned me!

[Rangaiah feels Rajiv’s body and breaks down.]

Rangaiah: How sad, babu has died so young.

Ramya: Am I not worse off being widowed so young?

Rangaiah: Why so beti, won’t Deva babu take care of you?

Ramya: We’ll come to that later but let’s move the body out of my bedroom.

[Ramya and Rangaiah manage to lay the body in the drawing room. Rangaiah spreads a white bedspread over it.]

Rangaiah: Oh the poor master has lost his life and he won’t be raising from the dead either.

Ramya: Get lost; do you expect me to do a sati with him or what?

[Enter: Deva and Divya.]

[They rush towards Ramya. Divya takes Ramya into her arms. Ramya sinks into Divya’s lap and Deva caresses Ramya.]

Deva [to Ramya]: Oh the way he was cut up with both of us.

Divya: But how did the end come?

Deva: Dr. Aslam would be able to tell us. Has anyone informed him?

Ramya: Why, I called him. Don’t we need a death certificate now? I told Nayak to come as well to find out if Rajiv had left any will.

[Enter: Dr. Aslam and Nayak one after the other.]

[Dr. Aslam examines Rajiv’s body and closes its eyes.]

Divya: What went wrong with him Doctor saab?

Dr. Aslam: Looks like it’s a stroke.

Deva: Without a warning that is!

Dr. Aslam: Why I had been warning him not to pump himself with his faulty success pump all the time. But sadly he wouldn’t listen. Why, the mantra of our time is to fast-fruit life before age ripens it. In a way, he lost his way in life much before death has snatched it away from him.

Divya: Maybe it’s true with every life, doctor.

Nayak: More or less, yes, but it’s truer with people like Rajiv who place success above all else. Why they even shut out all that is associated with their early life believing they had outgrown their humble beginnings. Losing their life’s moorings thus, they allow themselves to marooned by bogus characters. But there are honourable exceptions. Why, didn’t bandit Valmiki become sage Valmiki?

Dr. Aslam: How come?

Nayak: It’s a cultural question that’s understandable. When the bandit accosted some saintly soul who it was I don’t know, well it’s a cultural dilution of the day, the good man asked the bad guy to ascertain from his family members whether they were prepared to share his sins. To the bandit’s shock and dismay, everyone of his family, including his wife, refused to share the sins of his banditry, the source of their livelihood! And that turned the bandit into a sage poet who bestowed Ramayana to the world of letters.

Dr. Aslam: Nothing surprising about it really as intellectual growth makes man ever humbler. The problem with man is he mistakes his bulging bank balances as a sign of his outgrowing his humble friends.

Ramya: Sadly Rajiv was a victim of that myopic of success.

[Exit: Nayak, Dr. Aslam and Rangaiah.]

Divya: Had he lived, maybe he would have repented.

Ramya: Do you honestly believe that he could have?

Divya: I’m not sure but what if he had died out of remorse.

Ramya: It’s unlikely the way he had behaved only yesterday.

Divya: Well, of what use it is talking about the dead.

Ramya [to Divya]: That’s true. Won’t you make some coffee for us?

[Divya goes backstage.]

Ramya: You know he died believing I’m in love with you?

Deva: But is it so?

Ramya: [clutching at Deva’s arm]: Don’t you know?

Deva: Maybe, but I didn’t believe I could be so fortunate.

Ramya [sinking into his arms]: And now?

Deva [hugging her]: I can’t rejoice more.

Ramya: Don’t we owe it to him for making our dreams come true?

[Deva reaches out to her lips.]

[Curtains down.]

Scene - 5

 

[Curtains up: Ramya in the bedroom and Rajiv in the drawing room sofa both lay asleep.]

[Rajiv wakes up in a trance seemingly perturbed. He looks up at the wall clock.]

Rajiv: Oh God, it’s nearing six! Don’t they say early morning dreams come true?

[He goes into the bedroom to wake up Ramya.]

Ramya [drowsily]: What’s the matter?

Rajiv: What a dreadful dream!

Ramya: What’s new about it?

Rajiv: It’s a bad omen.

Ramya: O ho, damn superstitions.

[Ramya fails to get up, Rajiv moves into the drawing room after a good stare at her even as Rangaiah enters with a broom.]

Rangaiah: What’s wrong Rajiv babu?

Rajiv: I had a dreadful dream.

Rangaiah: Rajiv babu, are you not upset at the unexpected developments.

Rajiv: What happened to my life Rangaiah? It’s as if it has turned on its head all of a sudden. Oh, how I started snubbing Rau after our graduation and gave him enough hints that I had outgrown him? And imagine, he’s going to be a high court judge now! Still I would have held my industrial head high enough for him had I got my project grounded or took hold of Sampath’s unit. Since it’s not the case and as Nayak is bound to carry my failure to Rau, won’t he have a hearty laugh at my expense?

Rangaiah: Rajiv babu, are you not stretching things too far. Who knows, Rau babu may not be a fishing- in-the-troubled waters type.

Rajiv: Rangaiah, because you are a simpleton you think everyone is like you. Oh, how