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

fell ill, she made me work all day in the garden.

Mallamma: Why, when it’s julum on us, the dorasanlu score no less.

Narsimma: And all the while she was yelling, Narsiga, Narsiga, Narsiga. It’s as if she can’t get my name right.

Yellaiah: Well, they think we’re not entitled to our name even.

Mallamma to Narsimma: Bear all that for now my boy. Once you’re a B.A., all will call you Narsimma.

Yellaiah to Mallamma: I’ll sell my shirt to make him a B.A., and it’s my word to you.

[There is a commotion outside, and Sarakka exits.]

Sarakka [Reenters]: Maisaiah mama is being carried on a cart. Shaukar Saab is also there.

Yellaiah: Let me find out what’s the matter.

Mallamma: I’ll also come. Lachamma might need me.

[Exit: Yellaiah and Mallamma leaving Narsimma and Sarakka. Curtains down.]

 

Scene – 2 

[Curtains up: Maisaiah’s body ‘in drawer’ laid in front of his hut in the dalit mohalla. Lachamma, his wife wails over it. Shaukar Suryam and two of his henchmen with sticks stand aside. Enter Yellaiah and Mallamma anxiously. ]

Yellaiah: Dandaalu Shaukar Saab.

[Yellaiah goes over to Maisaiah and sees he’s dead.]

Yellaiah: Shaukar Saab, how’s that Maisaiah died in his drawer?

Shaukar Suryam: Yera Yelliga, are you questioning me?

Yellaiah: Is it possible Shaukar Saab. But what it means to die in one’s drawer?

Shaukar Suryam: Yedava Naayala stole my money. It’s only to make him open his mouth, he was stripped and beaten. But sadly for me, he died before coughing up.

Mallamma: Shaukar Saab, we’re poor but we’re no thieves.

Shaukar Suryam: That will be known now. [He turns to his henchmen.] Go in and see.

[The two go into the hut as directed.]

Mallamma: Shaukar Saab, there aren’t any attics in our huts to hide booty.

Shaukar Suryam: O, Mallamma, mind your own business or else.

Yellaiah: Don’t mind her words Shaukar Saab.

[Thrown out of the hut by the search party, some dented and unkempt aluminum vessels fall all over the place. In the end, as his henchmen appear with a cloth bundle, Shaukar Suryam is delighted, and the gathering is stunned. He eagerly unfolds the bundle and finds a plastic kiddy bank that he expectantly opens. But disappointed at finding only some small change, he throws the plastic on the floor, however, after pocketing the money. Lachamma takes the empty box, and wails inconsolably.]

Mallamma: Now what do you say Shaukar Saab? Why didn’t you make sure he really stole? Oh, how you’ve killed an innocent man.

Shaukar Suryam: I suspect he was at it all along. Naayaala might’ve hidden it somewhere.

Lachamma: Oh, he was saving for his child in my womb but couldn’t save his own life. As I’m penniless, his child would be posthumous.

Shaukar Suryam: Don’t worry Lachhi. Aren’t you good enough to find a mate in double quick time? Do you think I’ll let you down in the meantime?

[Enter Papa Rao Patel in mufti and Head Constable Veeraiah in vardi.]

Shaukar Suryam: Randi Veeraiah garu, but sorry for the bother.

Veeraiah: Isn’t it my duty Shaukar Saab.

Papa Rao to Veeraiah: Mori Saab, don’t think Shaukar Saab won’t how know risky it is for you?

Shaukar Suryam: Don’t I know Papa Rao Patel that I’ve to provide an ‘all risks cover’ for Veeraiah garu.

Veeraiah: [Goes near Maisaiah’s body.] What happened to this fellow?

Papa Rao: Poor fellow died of snake bite Mori Saab.

Shaukar Suryam: If Veeraiah garu clears the air, they can cremate the body.

Lachamma: Mori Saab, please listen to me.

Papa Rao: Didn’t you hear what Shaukar Saab has said? What is left for you to add?

Mallamma: Mori Saab, she’s his wife after all, and you’ve got to take her statement, won’t you?

Veeraiah: Keep your mouth shut or else I’ll drag you to the Police Naaka, and book you under the Brothel Act. You dirty bitch, what do you think of yourself?

Shaukar Suryam: Pardon her Veeraiah garu. After all, it hurts to lose one of their own. Now let’s go about the panchanama.

[Exit: Shaukar Suryam with his henchmen and Veeraiah.]

[Enter: Yadagiri, Mallamma’s brother. After condoling Lachamma, he whispers into Mallamma’s ear. In turn Mallamma whispers into Yellaiah’s ear.]

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

 

Scene - 3 

[Curtains up: Maisamma on a stool besides two wooden chairs and Renuka on a mat in the hall of a kacha building in the dalit mohalla.]

Renuka: Why all this fuss naanamma?

Maisamma: Because our Renu has matured.

Renuka: So what.

Maisamma: Well, it’s the day that begins your nights.

Renuka: What do you mean by that?

[Maisamma whispers into Renuka’s ears.]

Renuka: But isn’t amma against baava.

Maisamma: Sadly she’s rooting for Saailu. Say you don’t want to wed any till you pass Matric, and we’ll see later.

Renuka: But why is naayana afraid of amma?

Maisamma: Well, how long can it be hidden from you. Your mother is hand in glove with that cruel Papi Reddy, and so my poor Yadagiri is scared of him.

Renuka: I hear naayana call amma a loose woman. Who’s a loose woman naanamma?

Maisamma: Someone close to more than one man, but as things stand, it’s rare for a dalit woman not to be loose, especially in youth. These peddollu force upon us and there is no way we can resist them.

Renuka: But don’t they say we’re untouchables?

Maisamma: That’s the irony of sex Renu. How I wish you remain untouchable for them.

Renuka: What about you?

Maisamma: One day Shankar Rao Patel caught my hand in the fields, and I slapped him with all my strength. Imagine what he did. He took my hand, rolled it over his face, and said that he loved it far better that way. After that, I couldn’t resist him for long. Well, we had a steady affair till he died, sadly at fifty. But unlike the peddollu you’ve come to see, he was a kind man.

Renuka: What about aththa?

Maisamma: My Mallamma is made of a different mettle. When this dora tried to molest her, she said she would rather die than yield to him. But as he tried to grab her still, she ran like hell and jumped into their well. Luckily, she was saved in the nick of time.

Renuka: Oh, really!

Maisamma: That’s not all. What a predicament it was for the peddollu that an untouchable jumped into their well. As nobody was prepared to drink from it, they had to purify it with gangajal, that too after pumping out all the water from it. In the meantime, oh how long it took them, they had to fetch water from other villages. Well, what news it made then, and they got the message that Mallamma won’t bend any way. Maybe, it could be the fear of her jumping into the well again that keeps the patels and the patwaris too at bay.

Renuka: Why not all of us do that naanamma?

Maisamma: It’s because of our love to live that we put up with the indignities of life. Being branded loose women is just one such.

Renuka: What about the memsaabs?

Maisamma: Why aren’t they women like us.

Renuka: But do they get close to our dalit men?

Maisamma: In hush-hush ways that is. But if the cat is out of the bag, often it gets killed. Of course, the dark one, but the fate of the fair thing depends on other things. But, mostly the affair is pushed under the carpet.

[Enter: Yadagiri with Yellaiah and Mallamma.]

Yadagiri: Amma, Maisaiah is dead.

Maisamma: Oh how come?

Yellaiah: I doubt that Shaukar got him killed.

Maisamma: But why should he get his own naukar killed?

Yellaiah: Shaukar says Maisaiah has stolen his money but I suspect there’s something fishy about it. [Then he turns to Mallamma.] Malli, didn’t Maisaiah tell us that he was going to memsaab as she had some work for him before Shaukar returned from Warangal. Can’t we now put two and two together?

Mallamma: Why all that now before Renuka. [To Renuka.] So, you’ve left Sarakka behind.

Renuka: Po aththa.

Mallamma: You better preserve your shyness for your baava. Well, where is vadina?

Maisamma: Don’t you know she’s always with that Papi Reddy Patel?

Yellaiah: It’s high time we had put some sense into her head.

Yadagiri: Whenever I’m hard on her, she goads him to get tough with me. Why blame him when she herself is so mean.

Mallamma: Why not I give her a bit of my mind.

Yadagiri: Don’t ever do that akka; you know what a foul mouth she has.

Mallamma: So be it. It won’t do any good to Renuka if she won’t mend her ways now.

Yadagiri: Let’s get Renu married to Narsimma, and that solves all the problems.

Mallamma: How I wish we could do that. But I want Narsimma to be a B.A. at any cost and you know marriage means its curtains down. Moreover, aren’t they too young to wed?

Yadagiri: Oh, how my poor girl is caught between two stools. If we don’t move fast Anasuya would make her wed that good for nothing Saailu, her pimp of a brother.

Maisamma: Be a man at last, and let not things come to that pass.

[Enter: Anasuya.]

Anasuya: Whom is the old hag instigating?

Yadagiri: Learn to respect my mother at least.

Anasuya: Respect her, my foot.

Yadagiri: Any way, what does a loose woman know about respect?

Anasuya: Oh, don’t tell me your mother kept her thighs ever closed.

Mallamma: It’s sickening really; at least consider her age vadina.

Anasuya: True, an old whore is chaste no less. Oh the poor thing.

Mallamma: Forget about her past; now think about Renuka’s future. .

Anasuya: Don’t I know what this panchayat is all about.

Yadagiri: Why what’s the secret about it? Who would want Renu wed a pimp.

Anasuya: Oh, penimiti, better mind your tongue.

Yadagiri: Don’t forget Renu has a mind of her own. Don’t you know she’s fond of Narsimma.

Anasuya: Once she weds Saailu, she would be no less fond of him.

Mallamma: Vadina, why hurry things, let her first complete her Matric.

Anasuya: Why, to let your B.A son elope with her then?

Yellaiah: Well, all along you’ve been teasing them as a couple in the making, didn’t you?

Anasuya: Maybe, but I’ve changed my mind.

Mallamma: But then, they’re in love with each other.

Anasuya: Don’t worry; it won’t take long for them to fall out of it.

Mallamma: But vadina, why are you bent upon breaking the alliance?

Anasuya: Yeendee lolli. Am I obliged to tell to you?

Yellaiah: I’ll see how you can back out now. Don’t I drag you to the panchayat?

Anasuya: Listen Yellaiah, Renu can wed your son over my dead body, but before that take care you don’t die of some snake bite like that poor Maisaiah.

Yadagiri: What to do when the fence itself is bent on eating up the crop. [Turns to Yellaiah.] Why should you suffer more of her foul mouth?

[Yadagiri leads away Yellaiah, and Mallamma follows them.]

Anasuya: Good riddance bad rubbish.

[Anasuya goes inside.]

Renuka: Who’s a whore naanamma?

Maisamma: An abusive word for a loose woman that loosens her lovers’ purse strings.

And the irony of abuse is that in abusing man, it’s the woman that is abused. Won’t the list of abusive words reveal that?

Renuka: And what about a pimp?

Maisamma: Why do you want to know all about sex the day you’ve matured? [She laughs heartily.] Well, God forbid you won’t have to deal with any.

[Curtains down.]

 

Scene – 4 

[Curtains up: The sun is still some way to set on Rampur’s horizon, and seated on the square cement dais around a mango tree at the temple are Muthyal Rao, Papa Rao Patel, Rami Reddy Patwari, Papi Reddy Patel and Shaukar Suryam. A couple of Muthyal Rao’s henchmen stand guard as well. Papa Rao Patel opens the day’s daily, and is about to read out the earmarked news to them.]

Muthyal Rao: Papa Rao Patel, for once why not give precedence to the local news. Let’s hear the update on Maisaiah’ widow from the horse’s mouth.

Rami Reddy: Dora, why embarrass Shaukar Saab?

Muthyal Rao: Why Patwari, what’s new in it? Won’t he take women on lien in lieu of interest?

Rami Reddy: Why don’t you realize dora that he has to pay for her upkeep in this case? Isn’t it like parting with the principal? What an unwelcome development for any moneylender.

Papi Reddy: Why isn’t she well-endowed to make value addition.

Rami Reddy: By the way, Shaukar Saab, have you any clue who