INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN..123

INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN…123

Dr K Prabhakar Rao


( Gandhi, Nehru and Patel are seen at a five star hotel in Hyderabad at Banjara Hills. They enter the main gate and are stopped by the sentry)

Sentry. Who are you guys? What do you want here? This is not a place for you.

Patel. Why?

Sentry. This place is very expensive and a common man can not afford to eat or stay here. Yahaan tho loot lenge ( you will be robbed here). Kapde utar jayenge. (You will loose your clothes and get naked)

Nehru. Do you think we are common people?

Sentry. Then what? You don’t have even have a Maruthi 800 car. Leave a luxury one like Skoda or BMW or Mercedes Benz car.

Nehru. Is Maruthi so cheap type?

Sentry. That is the cheapest one can have to enter this place. We do not even salute those guys who come here on Maruthi car that too an old one. Forget about Fiat or Ambassador unless it belongs to a govt VIP with red light on roof.

Gandhi.Bapre. What a state of affairs!

Patel. You are not the one to decide whether we can afford or not. Call your manager.

Sentry. So be it. Better here from him and get wise.

( He goes inside and returns with a guy who is dressed in suit. He is the front office executive named Satish)

Satish. What is the matter here? Why I have been called?

Gandhi. We came to spend some time here over food. We are not being allowed in.

Satish. That is nice sir. Please understand our problem too. We have some dress code to enter here. (Looking at Gandhi). Sir, you are improperly dressed. You do not have even a shirt and look. How you are clad? You are in Dhoti with chappals that too worn out. Here we get customers who are the elite of the city. They may get offended if they see you in this way. (Looking at Patel)He is also not properly dressed. We want to people to be dressed in suit, shirt tucked in pant with tie, scarf, Pant and trim bush shirt, Jodhpuri, Achkan, Sherwani, but not in this dress. Sir please understand our limitations.

Gandhi. You are insulting our traditional dress. Is Dhoti bad? Even CM Rosiah puts on Dhoti every where. Chidambaram puts on Lungi. Kamraj Nadar always put on Lungi. Late Rajsekhar Reddy the CM always dressed in Dhoti. We should take pride in such dress.

Satish. Sir. Please do not misunderstand us. These are our rules. We also get foreigners here and want to maintain five star images. We can only allow this person and he is looking like a Neta(pointing at Nehru and he feels elated)

Gandhi. Look. He is actual a Neta ( leader). Is putting pant and shirt a five star image? Even criminals, Rapists, Badmash, Lafanga,Goondas, Crooks,Cheats, Rascals, Chors ( thieves), dacoits also are dressed in shirt and pant apart from all others such as politicians , ministers, Netas and doctors, land grabbers, gangsters, Engineers and govt officials. What do you say? Will you decide on dress?

Satish. I can not answer you sir. I shall bring the manger here.

( He goes in and returns with the manager who is dressed in a suit. )

Manager. What is the problem Bhai?

Gandhi. We are not being allowed inside.

Manager. True. You are not dressed properly. Please return with proper dress.

Gandhi. We are properly dressed. There is nothing indecent in our dress. Have not you heard about Mahatma Gandhi? Just think. What was his dress till he died?

Manager. He was father of nation. He is an exception. But you are dressed like him.

Patel. Relax manager. He is actually Gandhi.

Manager. Come on sir. Please do not pull a fast one. He was slain long ago by Godse. How can he be alive?

Nehru. You shall not understand the intricacies of this.

(Manger thinks for some time and speaks over phone to some one)

Manager. Please get inside. We have no problem. We shall adjust. Please go to banquet hall X.

(The Trio walks in along with the manager and front office guy and they enter the lobby and there is a visitors register and Gandhi at once goes and signs in the register followed by Nehru and Patel. Manager looks on stunned)

Manger. You guys are so good in English. Who are you sir. You look familiar. I am unable to recollect.

Patel. Look brother. I am Sardar Patel the iron man of India, the first deputy PM. That old man is Gandhi, Bapu, and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The guy in Sherwani is Nehru.

Manger. Yeah. I know got it. They were the great men. But died long ago. How are you here?

Gandhi. That you will not understand even if we tell you and I told this earlier too.

Manger. Is it a secret? Let it be. Any how I am happy to see you guys.

( He tries to shake hand with Gandhi. Gandhi also extends his hand and the hands do not meet. Managers hand just waves in air. He looks lost)

Manager. Strange, I can not feel your hand. Where it has gone? Why don’t you shake hand with me? (Appears to be worried and wants to avoid them)

Gandhi. I did ( they do again and manager fails to hold Gandhi’s hand)e

Manger. Please be seated here. I shall see whether some tables are vacant. Otherwise you have to wait. (He goes in)

Gandhi. Haa…haa. That guy got the lesson for the life. I saw fear in his eyes.

( The trio are seated in Sofas and all are looking at them queerly. Some guys go to them smiling. They are youngsters Naresh, Venkat and Sameer)

Venkat. Hello. Hoi,

Nehru. Namaste.

Gandhi. Good evening to all.

Patel. Ram.. ram

Sameer. Yeah guys. Is there any special show here to day and fancy dress competition? You guys are dressed exactly like Gandhi, Nehru and Patel.

Patel ( Getting worked up) Better leave us to our self. There is no such show.

Sameer. Sir. You are joking with us.

Gandhi. No jokes son. We are actually they. They are actually we.

Naresh. ( shrieks ) Eee…eee… aaaa. What is this language ( He falls down)?

( All the guys gather around him and sprinkle water. After some time he opens his eyes and shivering looks at Gandhi)

Naresh. Where am I? What is my name? From where I have come?

( Venkat and Sameer embrace Naresh and start crying)

Venkat. Eee…eeee. What happened to this guy suddenly?.

Sameer. We wanted to enjoy here. We never knew such thing will happen

( In the mean time the manager arrives and enquires)

Manger. What happened?

Sameer. I do not know how it happened. We asked these guys (Looking at Gandhi) whether there was any fancy dress show here. They said they are real guys. He said we are they and they are we and after hearing them Naresh shrieked loudly and fell down

Nehru. Look boys. Does this guy suffer from any convulsions?

Sameer. Nothing like that. He is a very healthy guy and university boxer too.

Manger. What could have happened?

Venkat. Please do some thing. Call for ambulance. I shall inform his dad.

( Manger rings up for 108 ambulance and it arrives soon with a siren. The ambulance takes away Naresh to a private hospital)

( Manger goes to Gandhi nad tell shim that the table is vacant and they can go into hall X)

Gandhi. Thanks dear

(The trio goes to hall and occupy the table. After a while the steward goes to Gandhi and asks for the order)

Gandhi. Look dear . Mujhe do glass doodh lao wo bhi bakri ka ( Get me two glasses of goats milk) Patel and Jawahar Tell him what you guys want.

Patel . Plesae get us Chapaathi and sagg and some onions

Steward. Sir I ca get some chapathis and vegetabes . But from where can I get goats milk .
Gandhi. I like that only. But if you do not have it can you get fresh Buffalo milk just boiled

Steward. Sir. It is impossible to get now. We get milk from dairy.. any how I shall inform manager ( He goes inside)

( after some time the manger arrives and sees the strange order. He gets worked up)

Manager. Sir. Is it good for you to trouble us like this? How can any one get goats milk at five star hotel? Chapattis and sabji is ok. We manage some how,. How can we get fresh buffalos milk? Sir you are testing our patience.

Patel. It is our bad luck that we landed here. You know bapu loves Goats’ milk. Whole world knows it

Manger. But he is not Bapu. He is just dressed like him

Patel. You are mistaken. He is Bapu. Our Bapu. Your Bapu every ones Bapu.

Manger. Eee..eee… I am done ( Pulls his hair and shrieks loudly) ( He falls down fainted)

Gandhi. What happened to him? These guys are not mentally strong.

(There is lot of commotion around with falling down of manager some one informs General manager and he arrives soon accompanied by a doctor and assistants)

GM. What happened? Why he fainted?

Gandhi. The guy I think has high BP.

GM. Who are you guys and you look strange.

Patel. I am Patel Sardar Patel. He is Jawaharlal Nehru the first PM of India and this is Mahatma Gandhi. The father of India.

GM. Oh no. .. no.. save me. Eee..ee. eee ( shrieks loudly and faints )

(Entire hotel staff gather around him and there is great commotion. Suddenly lights go off. Generator fails to light up. Darkness is every where. Some guys are shouting for candles. Some one finds a candle. But there is no match box available any where.)

Gandhi. Patel. Better we skip away. Things are turning bad. These guys finally may turn against us. Let us go.

Nehru. True Bapu. I am scared

Patel. Let us go

( The trio gets up and walk away from hall and vanish quickly in darkness)


CURTAIN FALLS