INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN....160

INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN….160

Dr K Prabhakar Rao

( Gandhi Nehru and Patel arte walking on a street in Secunderabad cantonment. They halt near a tree and cantonment office is also close top it. There are some push carts selling tea and snacks. A fruit vendor is seen selling bananas. Some cows and buffaloes are seen lying down and enjoying peacefully. There is not much of traffic on the road.)

Gandhi. Nice and peaceful place indeed. Patel. Look at these cows. They are so happy.

Patel. Bapu, cows are generally very happy and docile. You look into their eyes. They look so innocent and peaceful.

Gandhi. I fail to understand how these cows are slaughtered by some people.

Patel. Bapu. It is their way and habit. Old habits die hard.

Gandhi. We must fight for ban on cow slaughter.

Nehru. Probably it will not happen as long as this country is secular.

Patel. Do you believe this nation is secular?

Nehru. Then what? We are secular surely.

Patel. I think you live in fools paradise. It does not become secular by your saying. Practically is it happening?

Gandhi. Patel. Why so? We are secular. At the time of getting independence we declared it secular. ( sings)

Guys , please know we are secular
Understand it is not circular
We allowed all nuts and bolts to stay
I am sure all are happy and gay.

Patel. Bapu. Kindly pardon me for not agreeing. If it is secular, why these conflicts in India?

Gandhi. I do not know any conflicts.

Patel. If it is secular the country must have uniform civil code. It is not there. Muslims are treated separately. Whenever some one asks for parity, they rise in arms.

Gandhi. What can I say. I said once that Muslims and Hindus are my eyes one each. Now I understand that thee eyes are not equal. They are different.

Patel True. The eyes are not similar.

( In the mean time a staff car with escort arrives and goes into cantonments office. There are many on lookers. Among them are Satish, Raja, Heera)

Gandhi. Is there any important even here? It looks some political leader has arrived here.

Heera. Yes sir. There is a meeting of cantonment board to day. It is an important event every year.

Gandhi. I see. That is nice. I see some constructive work is going on.

Patel. Hope some useful decisions would be taken today.

Raja. True sir. There are many problems here in cantonment .

Gandhi. What are they? Can we help you?

Raja. There is no development in the cantonment area. Getting permission for building a house is very difficult here. Even for two storey house we require Air port authority permission.

Patel. How ridiculous. Generally such precautions are taken for high rise buildings.

Gandhi. I think they are more careful.

Heera. Sir The land value generally does not rise much.

Patel. That is OK. This is nota commercial area. That is fine.

( In the mean time the staff car goes out of the gate at high speed blaring siren. It is about to hit Patel who jumps off in last minute.)

Gandhi. Who is this joker trying to drive so fast. He must be a mad guy.

Patel. Some cranky driver must be there.

Nehru. Thank God, Patel is not hurt.

Patel. Thanks Jawahar for your concern. I thought you must be sorry that I escaped.

Nehru. I am not that bad as a villain.

( In the mean time, some group of persons including some women storm out of the gate and go to their vehicles. All appear to be very angry)

Gandhi. Why this commotion? Some thing must have happened in the meeting.

Patel. These things are very common in India. What is so strange about it?

Gandhi. Patel, Find out what happened inside.

Patel. Sure Bapu

( Patel goes out and meets a guy who came out of the room. He appears to be an office assistant.)

Patel. Bhai, I am Patel, Sardar Patel, What happened inside and why this commotion?

Assistant. My name is Narsimha. I work as a steno here. But why do you want to know? We are not obliged to tell secrets to others.

Patel. So there some secrets also here. Please cooperate. ( Patel gives him Rs 50 note as bribe)

Narsimha. Am I a beggar? I need atlesat Rs 100.

Patel. That is fine. So you are ready to tell secrets for Rs 100.

Narsimha. This is minimum we take these days. Now Listen. There is a board meeting today under the and presided by General sahib who is the president of governing body.The meeting started well in time. Then MP who represents this constituency came half an hour late and went into room and the prsiding officer did not rise and welcome him.

Patel. Good thing he has done. So what if he is an MP. He should maintain time.

Narsimha. The MP got angry and tried to sit in a vacant chair next to the Presiding officer.

Nehru. What happened? Did he sit there? Has the chair broken?

Narsimha. No Nothing like that.

Gandhi. Was the chair a broken one?

Narsimha. Nothing like that. Presiding officer said that the chair was not meant for him and reserved for special invitees and that there was another seat kept for him at the back.

Patel. Very well said.

Narsimha. The MP was very furious. He screamed that he was an MP and protocol was not being cared for

Patel. The MP should not have behaved like that. What is so big about him.? These guys always come late to the functions and they feel unless they arrive late their importance is not recognized.

Gandhi. Haa..haaa..haaa . Very well said. I fully appreciate the stand taken by the Presiding officer. I am sure he must be a military officer.

Narsimha. True . He is a Major General and does not bother for these stray guys who do not keep up dignity.

Gandhi. Then what happened?

Narsimha. The MP asked the members to boycott the meeting. All these stooges got up and went away. A great joke indeed. The MP also shouted that he would re enter the room only when the military officer is transferred.

Patel. Now this MP will move heaven and earth to get this guy transferred.,

Gandhi. hee…Hee. I do not know who the nuts that elected him ?

Narsimha. People like us.

Patel. Haaaa….hhaa… heee…hee. There is a saying in Telugu.

Gandhi. What it is?

Patel. A dog was brought and was put on a throne on an auspicious day and was made a king. Alas! The dog tore off all the cushions and could not forget its old habits. Haa..haaa

Gandhi. These political leaders can not forget old habits.

Patel.Haa..haa.. true Bapu. They remain same old guys and do not behave in a befitting manner to theit status. They act cheap. What is so big about them. These guys are unnecessarily glorified.

Gandhi. Was I like that?

Nehru. Never Bapu.

Patel. That is why you were called Mahatma.

Narsimha. By the by who are you sir?

Patel. He is Bapu. MK Gandhi. I am Sardar Patel. He is Jawaharlal Nehru

Narsimha. Good morning sir. Iam lucky to see you people. But you were dead long ago. How you have come?

Patel. That you will not understand. Any how we are very happy that you have respect for us.

Narsimha. Why not sir? You were great men.

Patel. Thanks. OK MR Narsimha. We shall take leave. Nice information you gave to day. May God bless you.

(Narsimha goes away)

Gandhi. Shall we go away? It is getting late.

Nehru. OK Bapu. Let us go.

( The trio walks away slowly singing Ramdhun)

CURTAIN FALLS