INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN....296

                                          

                                        INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN…296

                                                         Dr K Prabhakar Rao

(It is  busy street  opposite to   Institute of Medical sciences and Gandhi, Patel and Nehru are also seen on the street. There is some commotion in the area  and many ambulances are seen parked. Doctors in white coats and steths in pockets are  busy moving around. Some are really busy while many  appear to act busy. )

Gandhi. Patel. What can be the matter today. All appear busy here  and there is commotion.  Was there any earth quake or train disaster.

Nehru. There could be some food poisoning in some school.

Patel. Why do  you wish such things at schools?

Gandhi. I am upset at things. What can go wrong here?

Patel. Bapu. Ask what can not go wrong here? Any how I shall enquire from some guy.

( Patel and Nehru  go  to a corner and approach  an elderly man whose name is Pyarelal

Patel.  Bhai. What went wrong?

Lal. All is wrong.  Guys are mad. They are nuts. They are a bunch of clowns.

Patel. Be clear sir. Whom you are blaming? Are they patients or doctors?

Lal. I am telling about patients.  The  hospital is full of  congress men and leaders.

Nehru. Why only congress men.?

Patel. Was there any  food poisoning at some big rally held by them?At these rallies  free food is given.

Lal. Nothing of that sort happened.

Patel. Then what happened? Recently summer heat has been very high and they held a rally in hot weather. I hope they suffered sun stroke.

Lal. No . Not at all.Doctors promised that they would  occasionally put TV display about the situation.

( Gandhi also approaches them slowly. He is seen coughing loudly)

Gandhi. Hugh.. Hugh.. Bhai. What happened here? Patel, you said you would come quickly. You left this old guy alone. Even Jawaharlal  left me.( Sings)

Ab kaun hai mera . ab kaun hai mera

Faryad hai.. Faryad hai takdeer ne loota hai basera  ( Surendranath from Anmol Ghadi..          

                                                                                     1946)

Patel. Come on Bapu. Have we deserted you? We came here to get some information for you. You must have patience too.

Gandhi. Oh . You started replying back.

Patel. Sorry Bapu. Please  try to understand. Do not be angry.

Gandhi. It is OK, Relax. I am fine. What he is saying?

Patel. He said that the hospital is full of patients from Congress party.

Gandhi. Why so. Have they come for blood donation?

Patel. Bapu. Can it be so? Since 1947 that party was in power for most of the time and sucked away all the blood from people.

Nehru. Come on Patel. No jokes please now. I am hurt.

Patel. Face things squarely dear. Search your heart for a while. Answer will be  clear. Subhash chandra bose said. Give me blood. I shall give freedom to you. How about the present guys?

Gandhi. What they say?

Patel. Give us blood. We shall drink or sell. Make money too.

Gandhi.  Come on guys. Find out what happened to the patients here.

Patel. Bhail Lal, Tell us  what exactly happened.

Lal. Look sir. These guys developed  some strange ailment and  for many days no one could diagnose what exactly was the  disease.

Patel. Hee..Hee

Nehru. What is there to laugh?

Patel. If one guy was there, I would not have  laughed. He says there are  hundreds here.

Lal. True. There are hundreds. All have the same symptoms.

Gandhi. What are these symptoms?

Lal.  They get sudden convulsions. They  get into delirium. They shout sounding Audi.. Audi..

Gandhi. What can be this Audi Patel?

Patel. Bapu, Audi is a very  costly car introduced in India. Very few can afford it.

Gandhi. Then why all these guys keep taking its name. Did the leaders at top promise them  these cars?

Patel. I do not think so.

Gandhi. This appears to be a  mystery. We must solve it.

Nehru. Relax. It is not our job. Doctors there who  got degrees like MBBS, MS MD DM etc.

Gandhi. True. But many doctors are donation type too. They  purchased seats in private colleges paying crores of money. More over the private medical colleges have no standards. They are apology to the name medical college.

Patel. Hee.. Hee.. Bapu. Let us not   get into that shit pot. We can not come out.

Gandhi. Well said. Now how  do we go about?

Lal. Bhai.  I suspect that these men  are scared of Modi sahib of Gujrat.

( In the mean time there is a big commotion  near the TV screens. People gather pushing around each other . Patel also runs there.  He reads the screen loudly. “” Dear Onlookers know what happened to all these patients.  The medical team has investigated everything in detail and has concluded that these are suffering from.. Modioisis aka Thrombo, pulmano, Gastro enteric craziasis that  is incurable. It is worst than cancer.)

Gandhi. How sad! That means these guys  have suffered Modi phobia ever since he became popular in the country.

Patel. True Bapu. They are scared. All the time they discuss about Modiji. They  use all phrases against him. They leave no stone unturned in condemning him. Finally  They got it while Modiji is fine. Hee..hee..

Gandhi.  I feel sad for the guys. They were crazy of dynasty. May god bless them with some  wisdom. In democracy every one has right to contest and win. No one has right to do character assassination.

Patel. But Bapu what exactly goes on now is Character assassination only.

Gandhi. What we can do. Hope god will give them some light. Let us go.

Patel. OK. Thanks Mr Lal for all the help.

Lal. Never mind sir. I am also like you.

                                 ( the trio walks away )

                              CURTAIN FALLS