INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN...179

INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN…179
Dr K Prabhakar Rao

( Patel and Nehru are sitting in a room in heavens. The room is simple with minimum gadgets. Gandhi is lying in a cot in a corner. He is weak and coughing too. An old Charkha is lying in a corner that has collected plenty of dusk. News papers are seen scattered in the room. A earthern pot with water and a glass are seen in a corner.)

Gandhi. eee..eee..aaa.. ohfo ( sings)

Mujhe apni sharan me lelo ram

Lelo Ram. Mujhe apni sharan mein… lelo ram…

( He sobs and gets hick ups. Patel goes to him and gives him some water and consoles him)

Patel. Bapu. Now what happened? You were active till yesterday.

Gandhi. Shh… What to say? I am much upset with all these scams in India.

Patel. True Bapu. It has become a land of scams. The present government appears to be the expert in engineering the scams and trying to manipulate things to escape.

Bapu. True. But the government will not own up things. They always to try to find ways and means to erscape and thwart attempts by opposition.

Patel. True. We have seen how the ruling party was adamant and refused to appoint JPC for probing spectrum scam.

Nehru.. ee… Hee..hee

Patel. Plesae do not laugh. We are discussing serious matters.

Nehru. These things can not be solved overnight. It will take some time.

Patel. By that time everything is forgotten and a new thing starts.

Nehru. Do you want the guys to be hanged immediately? Justice has to be given slowly

Patel. By that time the culprits will destroy evidence and escape law.

Nehru. That will happen in democracy.

Patel. So democracy can be defined as the system of apathy, laziness, inaction and free for all

Nehru. So be it.

Gandhi. ( suddenly goes to the bath room and closes the door. Inside he is doing some thing. He does not return quickly)

Nehru. Bapu has not returned quickly. Has he fallen down? Let us see.

Patel. (knocks toilets door) Bapu.. Bapu.. Please come out. We are worried.

( there is no answer from inside)

Nehru. Bapu.. Bapu.. What happened. Plesae come out.. Plesae come out. Bhai Patel. Some thing is not correct. See from window)

( patel takes a stool and climbs and peeps through window. He seen Bapu hanging from ventilator bar)

Patel. Oh fo.. Jawaharlal. Bapu has hanged himself.. ohfo ..noo.. eee…eeee..

Nehru. Bapu.. Mere Bapu.. hai..haii..aaa

( Patel kicks the door of tolet and it collapses. He rushes and lifts Gandhi. Slowly Nehru also helps and they bring out Gandhi. He is laid on bed)

Patel. Hope is still alive

( patel senses breathing of Gandhi)

Patel. He is breathing very faintly. He is in last in stages. They rub hands and feet and after some time Gandhi opens his eyes and looks at them)

Nehru. Bapu. Why you have done this? What happened? What are you going to achieve now by this?

Patel. Bapu. Why you have taken this extreme step.?

Gandhi. ee..eee.. I am vexed up with what is going on in India, that too when congress party is ruling.

Patel. Bapu. Is this the answer for it?

Gandhi. Then what is the answer? I am vexed up with these leaders. They do Ram nam Japna .. Paraya mala apna. Parya mal apna .. ho saara maal apna.

Patel. That is the national anthem Bapu. Jana gana man has no meaning now. It is a forgotten story. Bapu.. Once I went to see a movie and sat through full three hours. In the last six minutes I saw most of the guys getting up and running away. Then the national anthem was played. Most of the guys were rushing out of the exit doors. The flag was fluttering on the screen. That is the national spirit in India. Hee..hee. Any how you are a great fighter Bapu. You have seen many ups and downs. You have not committed suicide when India was divided. You took it in stride. Why this tamasha now? On the day of partition if you committed suicide things would have been different. People would not have suspected you at all.

Gandhi. Those days were over. I was fighting against alien. Now we are unable to fight our own people.

Patel. Bapu. It is our government. We gave them freedom. That is freedom from all worries. We gave them freedom to do all things less good and more of bad things. We gave them freedom to commit scams and get away too. We gave them freedom to open Swiss accounts. We gave freedom to manipulate. We gave them freedom to cheat, smuggle, loot and mismanage. We gave them freedom to ensure dynastic succession.

Nehru. Look Bapu. He is again hinting at me.

Patel. I am not hinting at you. It is for all. It is happening with all political leaders.

Gandhi. What to do? I never imagined the leaders will be selfish and corrupt.

Patel. We have to accept facts. Any how, you did a mistake. You should have gone on fast for dismantling congress after independence. Instead you went on fast to give 55 Rs Cores to Pakistan. That was the turning point in history of India. Godse got rid off you.

Gandhi. True. This congress party survived all these years on my Charisma only and singing my bhajans. They misused my name. All my children are no where now and vanished into dust bins of history. No one talks of them. They got no positions. They never rose in politics. Nehru dynasty is flourishing. It is their family business. This has been recently revealed in wiki leaks. Hee..hee.. No leaks were required. Every guys knows it. Can we do some thing now?

Patel. We have to see. If constitution lays down that no leader can be elected for the post second time. Many ills can be solved.

Nehru. It is not fair.

Gandhi. There is a point in it. First is that leaders will try to swindle as much as possible in shortest time as they may not get second chance. Their main motto would be to loot in quickest way and shortest trick. Another thing is that more and more people will get chance to swindle one after the other as the posts will last for a fixed duration.. All swindlers will make a queue. It would be the queue of swindlers.

Patel. Very true Bapu. You correctly guessed. But the present system is giving chance to only selected guys to swindle all the time whenever they form the government. (sings and does jig)

In the present system few can swindle
They do it with greatest care and ease
They plan, wait and do all the mischief
While in pubs girls do striptease.

Gandhi ( claps) Hear,,hear

Patel. This is because the guys from fixed families are making to the posts of influence. Soon these families could make business in different political parties. They will have members in each political party so that all swindled money will remain with the same family. Aim is only to swindle. Who wants to serve the nation? So all games are fair. There is saying that in war and love all is fair. I shall add to it. In swindling public money all is fair. These are the lessons from the outcome of Indian democracy

Gandhi. Shouldn’t we call Demoidiocracy.

Patel. Bapu, It is the most appropriate word. Bapu. You must be given an international literary award for coining this new word. I think there is time for Nobel award for literature.

Nehru. Are you guys going crazy with this all nonsense talk?

Gandhi. Why you are getting irked up? Patel. Plesae join us. My mood is returning after our inspiring conversation. Now I am feeling inspired too.

Patel. Bapu. That is good. Bapu. Have you heard the news?

Gandhi. What is that?

Patel. Some group has opened an Institution and named it as Indian Institute of mischief studies. The greatest scamsters will probably head it. Worlds best cheats and scamsters would be on faculty. People like Sobhraj could be delivering guest lectures to the students. There will be chairs in the name of best crooks in world.It has applied for deemed University status and is likely to award Degrees and diplomas and certificate courses. I went to see the library. Ohfo. There are some strange books there. Some of them are titled.. How to spoil things, How best to ruin things, How to rob and steal, The art of kidnapping, The art of smuggling, The rascals smile, Treatise of Fake notes printing, Treatise of arson and mischief, Manual of duping and mischief making, Art of crookery, Devil in me, The art of shady living, Trust the devil in your hand, My experiments with some truths of spoiling, How to swindle and Treatise of scams, design and execution. Most of the books are published by Devils and crooks oriental publications, Nai sarak, New Delhi and Dark and black hole house publishers, Sadar Bazar, New Delhi. Haji Masthan and Dawood Ibrahims huge photos are displayed in the halls. The auditoriums are named Haji Masthan hall and Katrochi Hall and Raja Hall.

Gandhi. These are strange titles. Some one is really genius too. What are the likely degrees being offered?

Patel. They are Bachelor of economic swindling ( BES), Bachelor of scam design( BSD), Bachelor of mischief ( BOM), Bachelor of crookery( BOC), Bachelor of Herapheri ( BHP) and many more. There could be some PG level courses. Research programs are also being offered leading to Ph D degrees.

Gandhi. Political parties may send their leaders for such courses. Some present leaders may do part time PhD programs.

Patel.. yaeh…

Nehru. What nonsense you are talking Patel. I am getting sick

Patel. Try to face realities brother.

Gandhi. Look Jawaharlal, What Patel said is very true. For 16 years you were at the helm of affairs. Country has gone down the moral plain like nuts. Don’t you feel bad about it.

Nehru. Why should I. I did best.

Patel. That is best of worst

Gandhi. What is this strange word?

Patel. It means of worst of highest order

Gandhi.. Hee..hee.. Patel . Let us go and visit that Institute. I am itching. Look how I have scratched my hands and legs.

Patel. OK Bapu. We shall go there. Jawaharlaal get reday . We are going there

Nehru. What can I do? I shall come

( The trio gets up and go out slowly)


CURTAIN FALLS