Onto The Stage Slighted Souls And Other Stage Plays

by BS Murthy

  Mallesam Gowd: Dora, don't you know they're postmasters at licking off the butter and throwing the crumbs at the rich and poor alike.

  Venkataswamy: Don't tell me you're any political novices.

  Papa Rao: How can there be novices in the cesspool of leeches that is politics?

  Mallesam Gowd: Sour grapes Papa Rao Patel.

  Venkataswamy: Set aside party politics, we've to admit that our public stock is low.

  M uthyal Rao: Why not you people do something about improving your worse than 'the last resort of the scoundrels' image?

  Venkataswamy: You won't say that dora, if you're in politics even for a day. Where's the scope for that, and moreover why is it needed? Won't people have to choose between a rogue of a Gog and a moron of a M egog? Well, the blessing that is electoral politics hands them power on a platter, well in turns. And five years is not too long a period to make good the lost opportunities. Is it Gowd garu?

  Papa Rao: He'll respond on the floor of the house or raise a hell of it in the well of it.

  Venkataswamy: Well, that's not going to happen till either of us changes the constituency. What do you say Gowd garu?

  M uthyal Rao: It's no joking matter Swamy Saab. If your Greyhounds don't hunt them in their hideouts, they're sure to hound us out of the villages. And that would be curtains down on your party propped up by the landlords.

  Venkataswamy: Are we na'ive not to understand that dora. Wait and watch, it will be thumbs up for us any way. But isn't it time we cheer up with cheers, why don't I see any preparations.

  M uthyal Rao: Why not, some Scotch might drown our sorrows a little. What do you prefer, Johnnie Walker or Chivas Regal?

  M allesam Gowd: M aybe Johnnie Walker as any way they're on the way out.

  Venkataswamy: Dora why not let poor Gowd garu dream over Chivas Regal.

  M uthyal Rao: And to keep both of you in good humour, won't we have both.

  Venkataswamy: Well, with three cheers to the Greyhounds on the hunt. [Curtains down]

  Scene -17

  [Curtains up: Narsimma, Mallanna, Srisailam, Renuka, Sarakka, Nirmala and others in the jungle hideout of the scenes-12,13 & 15. Sitting by a transistor as Nirmala is impatient for the news, Narsimma looks at his watch restlessly, and others wait in anxiety. As the beeps heralding the news are aired, all hold their breath.]

  News Reader: This is All India Radio. The news read by Swathi Rangarajan. Here's a flash. Acting on intelligence, the A.P. Police have nabbed M adanna, a high ranking PWG leader from a hideout in Hyderabad. Even as he was frisked away to an undisclosed location, fearing retaliatory raids by the M adanna Dalam, the Government has placed the police on the alert. In the other headlines...

  [Nirmala switches off the transistor, and looks at Narsimma anxiously.]

  Sarakka: So, it takes them twenty-four hours to break the news.

  Nirmala: I'm worried that he may be harmed anna.

  Narsimma: It's my word Nirmalakka; I'll go to any lengths to see he is freed.

  Nirmala: Don't I know that anna. But still, I'm afraid as he's high on their wanted list. Narsimma: Renu, you better take her out and steady her nerves.

  [Exit: Renuka with Nirmala.]

  [Narsimma huddles himself with M allanna, Srisailam and Sarakka.]

  M allanna: Who could've betrayed peddanna?

  Narsimma: Can’t the post-mortem wait M allanna. Let's think of a tit-for-tat to free him.

  Srisailam: But anna, now that they're on the alert, I don't see any soft targets to kidnap.

  Narsimma: Who wants a soft target now? Well, we've to think it big. Won't a tough ask with sentimental value soften their stance.

  Sarakka: Why not the I.G's kid if he has one.

  Narsimma: Isn't the I.G old enough to be a grandfather. Well, that works out better as he will be under varied pressure. Find out and plan for that. If not, think about some other kid with value addition. But who shall be on the mission.

  Sarakka: Being a woman, won't I be the best suited.

  Narsimma: Well, you be at the forefront as we provide the back-up.

  M allanna: Why not you hold our fort as Srisailam and I will help her raid theirs.

  Narsimma: Best of luck, but don't throw caution to the winds, the dalam can't afford to lose any of you.

  [Exit: M allanna, Srisailam and Sarakka.]

  [Enter: Renuka and Nirmala.]

  Nirmala: What happened to our couriers?

  Narsimma: Well, for now, no news is good news. But M allanna and others have left to create some very soon.

  Renuka: Have you sent them on a rescue mission or what?

  Narsimma: Well, we don't even know where he's kept.

  Renuka: I think it's time we think of penetrating their ranks.

  Narsimma: It's not a bad idea in the long run. Well, you look after the counter intelligence of the dalam. But for now, it's about kidnapping one kid or the other of the LG's household.

  Renuka: I love to build a network, won't I? But why involve kids in this war of nerves.

  Narsimma: Well, don't we've to choose horses for the races?

  Renuka: Women and children are always kept out, aren't they? Why break rules.

  Narsimma: Why not think I'm rewriting them.

  Nirmala: Why not, if it helps to secure his release without harming any.

  Renuka: Why don't you both realize that it's a dangerous game to start?

  Narsimma: So be it. But why place the cart before the horse. Let's wait for their return. Till then it's sojourn.

  [Lights go on and off to indicate the passage of a few days.]

  [Bright light and Narsimma, Renuka and Nirmala are in anxious wait near the transistor.]

  News Reader: This is Ail India Radio. The news read by Rakesh Tiwari. Here's a flash. In a daring operation, M adanna Daiam of the People's War has kidnapped Raja, the I.G's six-year-old grandson from his school in Hyderabad. The two accompanying Home Guards were also taken hostage by the gang suspected to have been led by Sarakka. In a handwritten note left behind on the school premises, the daiam sought the release of their leader M adanna within twentyfour hours threatening to kill the hostages after the deadline. It may be recalled that M adanna was nabbed by the Police from his hideout in Hyderabad only recently.

  Narsimma: Didn't they make us proud. Won’t they deserve a hero's welcome?

  Nirmala [In Excitement]: I'll go out and receive them at the frontier.

  [Exits: Nirmala.]

  Renuka: Your raising the stakes is really worrying me baava. I wish one won't lead to the other.

  Narsimma: Why don't you see this as a breakthrough for the revolution Renu.

  Renuka: Well, I'll wait and watch with my fingers crossed.

  [Lights go on and off to indicate the passage of time.]

  [Bright light and Narsimma with Renuka in wait.]

  [Enter Nirmala, M allanna, Srisailam and Sarakka with Raja, the six-year-old grandson of the I G. of Police and two sheepish looking Home Guards. Even as Renuka reaches out to a nonplussed Raja, Narsimma in excitement hugs Sarakka, M allanna and Srisailam.]

  Narsimma: Hail the heroes [Goes up to Raja.] Don't worry my boy; we'll send you home soon.

  Raja [cries]: 0 Mummy..., I want my mummy

  Renuka: Don't cry my Raja, she's would come soon. Till then why don't you play with me?

  [As Renuka folds round him, Raja stops crying.]

  Nirmala: Anna, the deadline is up and yet there is no contact. Now I see all my worries returning.

  Renuka: You know it's no easy decision, is it?

  Narsimma: Won't a tough stance make it easy for them?

  Renuka: What's that?

  Narsimma: A Home Guard in a body-bag.

  [Narsimma looks at M allanna, and then he eyes one of the Home Guards. Exit: M allanna and Srisailam with the Home Guards.]

  Renuka: It's atrocious to kill an innocent, isn't it?

  Narsimma: Sarakka why not see that Nirmalakka rests as I handle your restless
vadina.

  [Taking the cue, Sarakka tries to take Raja along he resists and cries. As Renuka holds Raja, Sarakka leads Nirmala away.]

  Narsimma: Why don't you understand Renu? The crisis calls for hard decisions. Besides, isn't he guilty by association? After all, he sides with the system.

  Renuka: But it's his occupation to make a living. And he's only doing his duty.

  Narsimma: Sadly for him, his duty clashes with our cause.

  Renuka: So be it, but they're poor like us, and our struggle is supposed to better their lot.

  Narsimma: It's the price the poor have to pay in our struggle for them.

  Renuka: What if they won't yield?

  Narsimma: They would have two more body-bags to count.

  Renuka [She hugs Raja tight]: Oh, he's just a kid as you and I were once.

  Narsimma: But unlike us, he's a potential class enemy. As a grown-up, won't he serve the very system that oppresses us? But still we might spare him if that helps to secure our Madanna's release.

  Renuka: Why not hold out and see.

  Narsimma: Why not turn the heat on them by killing the other guard as well. It's then they would come around to save their privileged kid.

  Renuka: Oh, what a change. Oh, how you had pleaded for Narsi Reddy's life in that dalit adalat. And this Raja is just a kid.

  Narsimma: In a way I was more of my mother's boy than my own man then.

  Renuka: Oh, how strange life could be. If you were not forthcoming then as your mother's boy, now you are distancing yourself from me as your own man. But you were your own self when you symbolized the ethos of the Rampur Resolution. Not before and certainly not now.

  Narsimma: M aybe, but then they were the early days of the revolutionary opposition. As the course of the struggle made me its leader, am I not obliged to give it a new direction. As a lot of naxal blood had flowed down the ideological bridge, let revolutionary aggression be the new mantra of the movement.

  Renuka: Oh, what a ruthless leader you're turning out to be?

  Narsimma: M aybe, underneath I've always been ruthless Renu. Why, didn't I keep you away till you showed me the way to save my studies?

  Renuka: I am afraid we're drifting away baava.

  Narsimma: Don't worry Renu, our love is sure to bind us together, and that's forever.

  Renuka: I feel as if your life has trapped our love in a padmavyuham. And my fear is that like Abhimanyu, you too don't know the way out to save it.

  Narsimma: But unlike his wife Uttara, aren't you right in the middle to do that for me?

  Renuka: It's my only hope, and God forbid a letdown.

  Narsimma: Now wish that God wills our M adanna's release.

  Renuka: Won’t I pray for that any way. More so as that saves the kid and the Home Guard.

  Narsimma: Oh, how it feels when you can't pin hopes on prayers even. I experienced that when I was powerless to prevent your marriage. Well, it can never be described, and God forbid one can only experience it. And now, all my power seems inadequate to secure Madanna's release.

  Renuka: Oh really, how helpless life makes us to save our beloveds. Given my newfound zeal to serve our folks, now I'm coming to fathom your the then obsession for graduation. If not for my urge to further my vision won't I wish to die if I were to fail you?

  Narsimma: You failing me, forget about it. Can you do that even in your dreams Renu?

  Renuka: But baava, its nightmares these days.

  Narsimma: Why lose your nerve and tie my hands at this crucial moment? Are we not equally passionate about our mission?

  Renuka: Why am I not here to strengthen your hands to fight for our folks? But are you not bloodying your hands more and more. Oh, don't I find them slippery to hold even, leave alone lending support to you. Why not we rescind from violence and put some substance into our struggle baava?

  Narsimma: Why not, let's first secure M adanna's release, and then we'll have a full house to discuss. Didn't M adanna himself hold you as the conscience keeper to the dalam?

  Renuka: I'm relieved baava. Now won’t I pray for Madanna as much as for Raja and his escort?

  Narsimma: Let's see what the sarkar has up its sleeve. Hope it's not a case of Renu proposing and the regime disposing.

  [Curtains down.]

  Scene -18

  Voice Over: In spite of its repeated threats to kill the kid, the dalam failed to secure Madanna's release, and a cornered Narsimma carried out the threat. In a swift move that followed while the Greyhounds captured Sarakka, the police had eliminated her in a fake encounter thereafter. And this hardened Narsimma's attitude towards the men in uniform even more, and he began raiding the Police Stations and blasting their patrol jeeps at will. In time, when the police claimed to have killed a fleeing M adanna in an encounter, he in rage went on a rampage. And that made him the most wanted in the land with a reward of Rupees two million on his head. Outraged by his revolutionary aggression, Renuka was wont to advocate the course of political opposition to further the dalit cause but a cynical Narsimma wouldn't change tack. In the end, Renuka threatened to leave him, and the dalam, but to no avail.

  [Curtains up: Narsimma and Renuka are in the hideout of scenes -12,13,15 & 17.]

  Renuka: Baava,doyou realize what this day means to us?

  Narsimma: Why aren't we still a year away from the seven year itch?

  Renuka: Oh no, but why there's no word about it all day.

  Narsimma: You know how I'm bogged down to blow up that big fish.

  Renuka: What a shame, six years over and we haven't added.

  Narsimma: Why hasn't the reward on my head got multiplied?

  Renuka: It's no time to joke as we're at the crossroads of life.

  Narsimma: You know that's the sacrifice the revolutionaries have to make.

  Renuka: But still we're human with human wants, aren't we?

  Narsimma: True, but there is no way we can be parents.

  Renuka: What's that we've achieved after all the self-denial?

  Narsimma: Don't you see the changes around? Now nobody dares demean the dalits.

  Renuka: Maybe, but they still remain poor, don't they?

  Narsimma: Do we have a magic wand to make them rich.

  Renuka: Now I am sure they remain poor as long as we're around.

  Narsimma: Renu, don't you sound reactionary?

  Renuka: So be it. Until we vacate the stage, no entrepreneur would ever step onto it, and unless industry goes rural, the village poor remain poor. And I'm sure about it.

  Narsimma: What if we give up arms, won’t the peddollu rule the roost all again.

  Renuka: Why don't you realize, it's as farmhands that dalits are at the landlords' mercy. If only the villages are industrialized, won't the landlords lose their grip over the peasants?

  Narsimma: Since when are you in the pay of the capitalists? [Laughs.]

  Renuka: Jokes apart, let’s seek amnesty and work differently.

  Narsimma: Well, as you know, I've crossed the Rubicon, not once but twice.

  Renuka: And I crossed it when you had put that innocent kid to death. You don't know what a dilemma I was in then. I was obsessed with the idea of saving his life, and I racked my brains as to how to go about it. It even crossed my mind to kill you and others to let him live. But then, I realized your life was more valuable to the dalit struggle.

  Narsimma: Oh, really! That's my Renu I'm proud of. But you too know that was the most difficult sentence I had ever pronounced.

  Renuka: It's the one death that came to haunt me ever since. How poignant his death was for he died crying for his mother. It was then that I realized how paramount motherhood is to a woman's life.

  Narsimma: Is nursing the dalit cause any less paramount to you as a woman. And as for death, as we chose to live by the sword, we shall be prepared to fall by it. But still a revolutionary never dies in vain. Won't his death stir others to carry on the struggle?

  Renuka: What about the deaths we had caused, can we live w
ithout remorse? Unlike that kid, can we face premature death without fear, and a sense of betrayal by life itself? Oh, how he died without fearing death. Maybe, he's too young to grasp the import of life, leave alone death.

  Narsimma: Won't death ensure that we don't live long enough to suffer on that count.

  Renuka: Why not we take solace in building lives instead of destroying homes? I'm sure it would help our souls. Let's begin paving the dalit political way to power.

  Narsimma: Want to join politics that last resort of the scoundrels.

  Renuka: As we're no scoundrels, won't we make a difference to the politics?

  Voice Over: Greyhounds, Greyhounds.

  [Narsimma tries to rollover with Renuka who resists.]

  Renuka: Baava, let's surrender. [She raises her white dupatta.]

  Narsimma: Lets run Renu; it's no time to vacillate.

  Renuka: I'm fed up with this life baava. Let's give up ourselves.

  Narsimma: Won't I prefer to die in a real encounter than in a fake one.

  Renuka: I'll see that you're not harmed. I'll stake my life for that. [She rolls over him suggesting a protective embrace.]

  Voice Over: Run for cover, they've neared us.

  Narsimma: Chalo, have you gone mad or what?

  Renuka: Won't you stay back for my sake..

  Narsimma: Come on Renu, it's not the way to force the issue.

  Renuka: Don't say nakko, baava. I want to love you and live with you.

  [Sound of a hail of bullets and approaching foot steps. Renuka holds Narsimma tightly in her embrace even as he tries to wriggle out.]

  Renuka: I want to bear your child baava.

  [But as the Greyhounds come near, Narsimma wriggles himself out of Renuka's grip and tries to drag her but she continues to hold him. In the end, he manages to escape and the Greyhounds go after him in hot pursuit. A crestfallen Renuka sits still on the ground.]

  [Enter: Captain Ranjit Kapoor of the Greyhounds as the gun shots cease.]

  Captain Kapoor: Sorry Renu-ji, he's dead.

  Renuka: Oh, what about others?

  Captain Kapoor: Well, they ail escaped.

  Renuka: Oh, if only I could have prevailed over him.

  Captain Kapoor: We understand your hurt and appreciate your sacrifice madam.