The Empress
Page 8
You and your damned lies.
RANI:
Lies?!
LORD OAKHAM:
You told the mistress. You told her a gross untruth – and now she has taken to her bed. That I cannot forgive. You are to leave immediately.
RANI:
But the children… Little Emily…she will be heartbroken…
LORD OAKHAM:
She will get over it. You are a harlot.
RANI:
I am carrying your child.
LORD OAKHAM:
No! It is not mine!
RANI:
You were the only man who touched me!
LORD OAKHAM:
Keep your voice down, you whore. Trying to trick me.
RANI:
You promised to protect and care for me!
LORD OAKHAM:
I promised you nothing.
RANI:
What about the baby?
LORD OAKHAM:
Shut your mouth before I have to shut it myself.
GEORGIE rushes forward to try and protect RANI.
GEORGIE:
My Lord, we can’t just throw the girl out onto the streets. How will she provide for her baby?
LORD OAKHAM:
Georgie, you stay out of this.
GEORGIE:
Give her a few days to find somewhere else.
RANI:
Where will I go?
LORD OAKHAM:
Rani, I don’t care. I have no interest in knowing what becomes of you and your bastard child. Put her in the workhouse when she is born. Leave her on the steps. She can join the ranks of other bastard children all over the city. Or better still, drown her.
RANI:
You monster! You can have anything and still you take?
RANI picks up clods of earth and starts flinging them in a blind rage at OAKHAM.
LORD OAKHAM:
Stop it!
GEORGIE:
Oh Rani – be careful!
RANI:
Destroyed everything – hopes, dreams, future…and you made a fool of me.
LORD OAKHAM:
I’m warning you…
RANI:
You can call me a liar, but your wife knows you’re a snake. She knows.
LORD OAKHAM:
(To RANI.) Get away from here or I will call my men.
LORD OAKHAM storms back into the house. GEORGIE looks at RANI helplessly. She helps pick up her clothes for her and hands them back.
GEORGIE:
You girls. I try to help but you never learn.
RANI:
You brought me here Georgie.
GEORGIE:
Yes, but I expected you to have some self-respect.
RANI:
Did you find the last Nanny for the Oakhams? Didn’t she have a baby too? What about the one before that?
GEORGIE:
You’re not suggesting…?
RANI looks at GEORGIE fiercely. GEORGIE looks horrified as the penny drops
GEORGIE:
Oh Lordy.
LORD OAKHAM:
(Offstage.) Georgie! Come back in at once
RANI leaves, destitute. GEORGIE watches her go – distressed.
SCENE 15
ABDUL is teaching VICTORIA Hindi.
We also see RANI holding a newborn baby.
ABDUL:
Namaste.
VICTORIA:
Namaste.
ABDUL:
I am delighted to make your acquaintance.
VICTORIA:
(Repeats in Hindi.)
Hame tum se mil ker bohut khushi hui.
ABDUL:
Remember to use the formal address of you as in ‘aap’.
VICTORIA:
(In Hindi.)
Aap ko hamari garmi kesi lagi. Yehe din bohut lambe he.
(How are you enjoying our summer? The days are very long in July.)
ABDUL:
Excellent ma’am. Your pronunciation is almost perfect.
VICTORIA giggles like a child.
VICTORIA:
We want to learn how to say ‘Good luck with your voyage’.
ABDUL:
We must not run before we can walk ma’am.
VICTORIA:
Pardon?
ABDUL:
You still have to write that first sentence.
VICTORIA:
You are a hard task master Abdul.
VICTORIA grumbles under her breath and starts writing.
ABDUL strolls around as VICTORIA writes.
VICTORIA:
We have written to Lord Landsdowne to grant you some land in Agra. When you go back, you must identify the land and write me the details.
ABDUL:
Thank you ma’am. I am forever in your debt.
VICTORIA:
We will die before you Abdul and when we do, we want to make sure that you and your family are provided for.
ABDUL:
Please ma’am, do not speak of death. I am your devoted servant and it pains me most severely to think of a world without you.
ABDUL falls to his knees and kisses VICTORIA’s hand.
VICTORIA:
We will be at a great loss without you.
ABDUL:
It is only for a while my Sovereign.
VICTORIA:
Please take good care of yourself.
ABDUL:
I will.
VICTORIA:
How does one say ‘I love you’ in Hindi?
ABDUL hesitates and looks at VICTORIA.
ABDUL:
Ma’am…
VICTORIA:
Tell me.
ABDUL:
(In Hindi.)
Me tum se pyar karti hui.
(I love you.)
VICTORIA:
(In Hindi.)
Me tum se pyar karti hui.
With all my heart. And I will count the days until you return safely to England.
VICTORIA reaches out, takes the Munshi’s hand and kisses it.
We see RANI wandering, sobbing, clutching her baby.
She reaches the docks, stops and looks out to sea. She cradles the baby.
RANI:
I am sorry little one. I cannot stay with you.
The baby cries. RANI tries to hush her.
RANI:
I love you. But I am going away tonight. I am stuck here on the island, imprisoned on all sides by the grey churning seas – maybe without me…you have a chance.
RANI places the baby on the ground and walks away.
ACT TWO
NB. Throughout the second half of the play we see HARI travelling around the Empire. These are visual representations of his work as a sailor.
SCENE 1
Tilbury Docks, 1891.
LASCAR SALLY and FIROZA are both standing at the docks. SALLY is waving furiously and blowing kisses. (FIROZA has a bad leg and is walking with the aid of a stick.)
SALLY:
Bye love! I’ll miss you darlin’. Come back to me!
FIROZA doesn’t look too impressed.
I must stop doing this Firoza. My poor heart’s been broken so many times.
FIROZA is silently disapproving.
Don’t look at me like that.
FIROZA:
I said nothing.
SALLY:
Do you think he’ll come back?
FIROZA:
He’ll come back if he survives.
SALLY:
You really know how to cheer a girl up. My heart’s been shattered, it has.
FIROZA:
Ha!
SALLY:
(Protests.) I love my Ganesh. Such a man!
Did you see those muscles of his?
FIROZA:
It was hard not to. Always challenging everyone to arm wrestling competitions and then ripping off his shirt when he won.
SALLY:
(Laughs at the memory.) He’s so strong. Built like a god.
FIROZA giggles.
SALLY:
Why you laughing at me? What I’m feeling right now – the grief – it’s real y’know.
FIROZA takes SALLY’s hand and pats it.
FIROZA:
I do not doubt your capacity to love, Sally. You have a very big heart.
SALLY sobs a little. FIROZA looks on with empathy.
SALLY:
Funny thing the sea. Always seems to call them back. However much they yearn for land – they always get itchy feet and want to get back out there. I don’t get it myself.
FIROZA:
It’s the adventure, the smell of new lands, of different people…the promise of something fresh.
SALLY:
It’s an excuse not to settle down. I wonder if Ganesh had a wife and family back home?
FIROZA is silent.
There’s no fool like an old fool eh – Firoza?
FIROZA:
Look!
FIROZA and SALLY turn to see RANI who is standing a slight distance from her baby. RANI seems frozen in indecision. FIROZA and SALLY look on in horror at the baby on the ground.
SALLY:
What’s she doing? She’s not…?
FIROZA motions at SALLY to keep quiet and then they both approach RANI casually.
FIROZA:
Oh! What a beautiful baby!
RANI is silent.
SALLY:
Gorgeous. So tiny! What is its name?
RANI cannot look at FIROZA and SALLY in the eye.
FIROZA:
May I?
FIROZA scoops the baby up in her arms and rocks her. She hums a lullaby.
FIROZA:
Are you waiting for passage?
RANI:
I don’t want this baby. She is a curse on my life.
FIROZA:
Don’t say that…look at her…she’s perfect…
SALLY:
Some bloke got you in trouble and then dumped you?
Promised you the world did he?
RANI:
He said he loved me, that he’d protect me.
FIROZA expertly wraps the baby tight and rocks her.
FIROZA:
You must learn to protect yourself.
RANI:
It was better for both of us that I was dead!
FIROZA:
No. Don’t speak like that.
SALLY:
A week from now and you’ll feel differently.
FIROZA:
You don’t remember me do you girlie? It’s me, Firoza. We met a few years ago at the docks.
RANI looks at FIROZA for the first time.
SALLY:
You’re the girl that Hari brought back. It’s Sally.
RANI:
I know who you are.
FIROZA carefully places the baby back in RANI’s arms.
FIROZA:
We should give the baby a name.
RANI:
If my mother was here, she would have done that…in my village, it is always the grandmothers who name…
FIROZA:
I had a best friend when I was growing up called Asha. Do you like that name? It means ‘Hope’.
RANI:
I can never go back now. The shame, the dishonour.
FIROZA smiles and coos at the baby.
FIROZA:
Hello little Asha. How would you like to come and live with your mother and me? I live in a big house.
The baby stops crying.
There, you see? She likes that idea.
RANI:
Please, look after my baby for me.
RANI tries to hand the baby over to FIROZA but she backs off.
FIROZA:
She is yours.
RANI:
No, no, you don’t understand…
FIROZA:
I do understand. This is not the way.
RANI:
Hari never came back for me…my master used me…I have no friends…I have been abandoned by everyone I ever met here.
SALLY:
I saw Hari a year ago. He was heading out to Africa on a ship carrying rail tracks. He was asking after you. He left a letter for you. I got it back at the house. Come on. Never thought I’d see you again.
FIROZA:
You look exhausted. Come on. We’ll curse the bad and praise the good.
SALLY:
It will make you feel so much better. Come.
FIROZA takes RANI by the arm, SALLY puts her arm around her and together they lead RANI away. RANI walks slowly, as if in a daze. They exit together.
SCENE 2
On board a ship out at sea. HARI is hammering up a large written notice. His fellow lascar crewmen crowd around him, worried.
HARI calls out to his fellow crewmen.
HARI:
Brothers, we shouldn’t put up with these conditions. Day and night we toil and labour. We have to make demands and not allow ourselves to be treated like animals.
LASCAR 1:
But Hari…we’ll get into trouble. They’ll punish us.
LASCAR 2:
They’ll cut our food rations.
HARI:
We’re nearly starving to death as it is.
LASCAR 1:
I don’t even know what your notice says. I can’t read.
HARI:
The notice is for the Captain. It says:
‘Lascar demands:
1. Equal pay with the white sailors
2. Equal food and water rations as the white sailors
3. No more beatings by the First Officer.
4. Rest periods between heavy labour
But most of all
5. We demand to be respected as members of the human race’.
The other LASCARS all cheer.
SCENE 3
Jewry Street, Aldgate. Home for Ayahs, 1891.
We are outside a house. MARY and CHARLOTTE, two English women, dressed sombrely, are standing proudly before a banner, which reads ‘Jewry Street, Aldgate. Home for Ayahs’. DADABHAI NAOROJI and a few Victorian ladies and gentlemen are also there. The scene opens with everyone singing a Christian hymn with great gusto.
At the end of the hymn DADABHAI steps forward and makes a speech.
DADABHAI
NAOROJI:
After much lobbying by a committee of concerned British women (DADBHAI bows in acknowledgement to the ladies.) we have finally secured this home. It will serve as a refuge for our beloved ayahs who have been ill-treated, dismissed from service or simply abandoned by the families which they have loyally served. We aim to find our ayahs placements with suitable families returning to India to end their suffering and to avoid starvation and deprivation.
MAN 1:
(Calls out.) Here! Here!
Bravo!
MARY:
Thank you.
Thank you everyone for your support in making this venture finally happen.
CHARLOTTE:
Especially to our Parliamentary candidate Dadabhai Naoroji who has striven tirelessly to make our dreams a reality.
DADABHAI bows majestically.
MARY:
This home will be an expression of Christian charity for the welfare of Indian womanhood, representing the caring mother country binding the colonised in a web of gratitude and loyalty.
MARY ends her speech and everyone claps and cheers.
CHARLOTTE:
Now please, everyone, do come and have a look around the place.
The doors open and we see the inside of the Home for the Ayahs. In the drawing room, we see RANI, FIROZA and another couple of ayahs sitting around the table, reading, sewing, embroidering etc. Some are wearing saris – hair scraped back in buns, others are in the black nanny’s Victorian outfit, whilst others wear traditional dress of their country. RANI is reading to a small child (ASHA). All the ayahs sit demurely, quietly and do not make any eye contact.
MAN 1:
How interesting. How many women do you intend to house here?
CHARLOTTE:
WOMAN 1:
As many as that?
CHARLOTTE:
We already have a waiting list of fifty ayahs, all destitute and unable to find accommodations, so as you can see the demand is there.
MARY:
And that is why we intend to try and find work for these ladies. This will be a safe place for prospective employers to come and peruse the different ayahs, so that they can choose for themselves someone suitable for their family.