INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN..237

INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN…237

Dr K Prabhakar Rao



(Gandhi, Nehru and Patel are seen loitering near parliament Bhavan when they were picked up by Police and taken to Parliament street police station. They are locked up. In the morning, they are woken up by Police men).

Constable. Hey guys get up now. You slept enough here.

Patel (with half closed eyes) Bhai. Please go away. Please do not disturb us. We are tired.

Constable. Why are you tired? What work you have done?

Nehru. Shh. Please do not disturb us. You have been already told once.

Constable. You guys appear to be rogues. In the night, we have not noticed.

Gandhi ( Sits up ) Bhai. What is troubling you? Is there any problem for you? Why can’t you relax and allow us to relax? I have been listening to you. Why are you disturbing us?

( In the mean time, SI arrives and constable complains to him)

Constable. Sahib. These men in the lock up are not getting up. It is already 1000 hours.

SI ( Goes to cell) Hey. Why can’t you get up? Why are you still asleep. This is police station. Not a hotel.

Gandhi. Please tell us why you brought us here?

SI. Why you were at Parliament building in the odd hours? Who are you?

Patel. Bhai. We are visitors to Delhi. We lost way and landed up here.

SI. How do I believe you? Do you have some identity proof?

Patel. How can we have? We died long ago.

( SI gets a shock of his life and has no word to say. He gets balanced again)

SI. Shut up. How are you dead? If so How are you talking and walking too?

Patel. That is a mystery. You will not know that.

SI. I shall show you. Please come close.

( Patel walks up to the door of the cell and holds the bars. SI hits at his hands with his lathi. The lathi falls heavily on the hand of Patel. He laughs)

Patel. Hoo..Hoo Haa. Haaa. Hee..Heee Hee. Try again and again.

( SI hammers again with his lathi. This time Lathi breaks in to two)

Patel. Haa.. Haa.. Look friend. Why are you struggling so hard? You can’t do anything. Keep sucking your thumb. If you want I shall give my thumbs also.

( SI does not know what to do. He is perturbed. He brings an iron rod )

SI. Now I shall show you.

Patel. Please do it as you like ( Sings)

Hey Oh Inspector of police
Why do you struggle to hit me?
Soon you get the lesson you need
Whatever you try and let it be

SI ( shouts) Stop singing bloody man. This is police station and not a drama stage.

( SI hits hard at Patel’s hand. The iron rod strikes the hand and iron grill and sparks fly. Rod gets bent. Nothing happens to Patel. He laughs wildly.)

Patel. Haa..haaa. Hee..Hee. Hoo.. Hoo. Hua .. Hua..

( SI is shocked and spell bound at the event)

SI.( Looks at Patel) Are you really not a man living?

Patel. Do you want to know. OK, Be ready.

( Patel displays his skeleton to SI. SI shrieks loudly and collapses. Constables rush to the spot. They do not know what to do. They throw a bucket of water on his face. Nothing happens. They ring up for ambulance and soon the van arrives and he is carried away. In the mean time, the Inspector arrives. He enquires from the constables)

Inspector. What happened constable 445?

445. Sir, SI sir collapsed after looking at that old man. Before that, he hit his hand several times with Lathi and then with iron rod. Nothing happened to him and he laughed too. Soon SI sir fell down.

Inspector. This is strange. Come. Let us go to the cell.

445. No.. Sir . Please do not go there. There is a danger there.

Inspector. This is all trash. Come. I order you.

(Constable 445 and inspector go to cell and look at the trio. The inmates of cell are seen sitting in a corner in relaxed mood)

Inspector. Hey. Guys . who are you? Who is the guy who looked at the SI.

Patel. It is me. He hit me also with stick and then with rod.

Inspector. Are you not hurt?

Patel. No.. He was hurt afterwards.

Inspector. What you have done to him? Are you a Tantrik?

Patel. I am in this cell. What can I do to him? I am sure he was suffering from inside problem. He had weak heart.

Inspector. I see.

Nehru. There is nothing to see.

Inspector. Who are you?

Nehru. I am Jawaharlal Nehru the former PM of India. These guys are Patel and Gandhi.

Inspector. Haa.. Haa.. You guys have good names and you dressed up also well.

Patel. We are real. You have no business to lock us up.

Inspector. That is our work. Why you were loitering at Parliament at odd hours?

Patel. We are visitors. There were no caution boards. Believe us and we are real guys.

Inspector. But the SI was saying on phone that you were claiming that you were dead guys.

Nehru. We are dead guys in fact. We died long ago.

Inspector. Then how you are alive now?

Gandhi. Now also we are dead guys. To you we appear to be alive. Please touch my hand. ( He puts his hand out of cell door and Inspector tries to feel it. He fails.

(Gandhi laughs Ha..Ha..Patel and Nehru dance throwing hands up in air. Inspector gets worked up. Suddenly he sees Patel out of the cell door . Patel stands in front of him.)

Inspector. How are out of cell? Constables, come and catch this guy. He may run away.

(Constables pounce on Patel and fall on ground in heap one over the other. Patel again gets into cell while Inspector looks on helplessly. He does not know what to do. Gandhi calls him to the cell)

Gandhi. Hello Inspector. Come here please.

(Inspector sheepishly goesto the door. He is trembling. )

Gandhi. Please compose yourself. We shall not harm you. Please be cool. We are the ghosts of Gandhi. Patel and Nehru. I am Gandhi.

Inspector. Sir. Now I am believing . But why are you here? What do you want? Plesae do not harm me. I have five daughters and three sons. All are young.

Gandhi. We do not want any thing. It is the SI who brought us here. We were near Parliament.

Inspector. That is a prohibited place where all are not allowed. So he was correct in his action.

Gandhi. But he was not ready to listen. Look inspector. Please know that there are many mischief makers in power and they are inside many great buildings and you know case of Raja the scamster in 2 G case. He was the minister and all you guys saluted him till recently. You do not know how many such guys are there still in the holy place doing bad deeds and not getting exposed. You are on the other hand are putting innocent guys like us in cell and troubling us.

Inspector. He was only an SI. His limitations are there. He became SI from Constables rank. I am a directly selected. Now what I should do? We can only catch simple guys like you. Influential guys we can not catch.

Patel. Please release us . You will not gain anything by holding us on. If we want we can escape in front of you. You can not do anything. Your weapons can not do anything. They are useless against Ghosts. We have no body. Do you want see our bodies and how we look like.

Inspector. I am not scared of any thing. Please show us. I think you are playing tricks with us. You have some magical powers. I am sure you have some skills of magic.

Patel. Please see. Do not blink. ( He displays his skeleton and the skull laughs. Hee..Heee)

Inspector. Oh No. These are real Ghosts. Constables , leave them at once.. Eee..eee….Constables save me. Aa.. aa…aa… eee..eee ( He faints and collapses )

(Constables hurriedly open the cell door and the trio quickly run out of the place while constables watch helplessly. They carry Inspector to a table and sprinkle water on his face. He slowly opens his eyes and shouts violently and trembles with fear. A constable runs to phone and rings up the Asst Commissioner of police of the area. Gandhi and his friends are already away from the station and are very close to the Red fort. They find great arrangements are being made at that place. )

Gandhi. What is being doe here? Is there any circus being planned here?

Nehru. It looks so.

Patel. No Bapu. The arrangements are for 15 August day, the day of independence when we sent away the Englishmen on 15 Aug 1947.

Gandhi. Oh I forgot.

Nehru, Bapu. Do you really mean it or joking?

Gandhi. Am I looking like a joker?

Nehru. Did I say that.

Gandhi. Please relax. Why this tamasha?

Patel. On 15 August, Dr Man Mohan Singh the PM will unfurl National flag on Red fort and will address the nation standing behind bullet proof glass and enclosure in his typical style and sheepish look reading from a paper without looking at people.

Gandhi. Is he so scared of his life?

Patel. These are the safety precautions. There is always a threat from terrorists. These precautions have to be taken.

Gandhi. ( Cries loudly) . Where was the security for me? I was shot dead like a lame duck. Every one knew that there was a threat to me. Earlier there was a bomb explosion to kill me.

Nehru. No one took threat to you seriously. No one expected that a Hindu would kill you.

Gandhi. On the whole, nation failed top protect me. I could hardly stay alive for an year after gaining independence.

Nehru. Those days were different.

Gandhi. Days have not changed? Could Indira be protected from killers?

Nehru. Some times, unexpected things happen. Even President Kennedy was killed in Dallas. A determined killer always has ways. A person lives on earth for the number of days he is destined to live.

Gandhi. It is strange you are talking philosophy.

Gandhi. Godse just walked in humbly, bowed to me , pulled his pistol from his folded hands and shot me dead. I had no breathing time. He was god sent man and appropriately called GOD..SE meaning from God. My days were numbered and I had to go eee..eeee.. Luckily I was already made father of nation. Thanks to Tagore who suggested it.

Nehru. Bapu. Why do you recall those moments? What purpose it will serve?

Gandhi. I died prematurely. I had still things to achieve.

Patel. What are the things? Can you spell out?

Gandhi. I would have got reservations for Harijans for getting President and Prime Minister posts.

Patel. Please use word Dalit.

Gandhi. OK. Poor Babu Jagjivan ram died crying that he was denied opportunity to become PM by Sanjeeva Reddy the president. Ambedkar was also frustrated and became a Buddhist finally.

Patel. It was bad luck for him. Any how, Mayawati is trying hard now in UP. Best of luck to her. Bapu, I personally feel that you died in correct time or else you would have got frustrated at the ways of politicians. Do you know Bapu, the things have changed greatly? Idiotic people from villages think that Rajiv Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi belong to your dynasty and they do not know that you have nothing to do with them in real and not related to them. The do not know that Feroz adopted Gandhis name to facilitate marriage to Indira as per some people. He was a Parsee and some say that his surname was Gandy and cleverly they changed to Gandhi. It was great trick. Two birds were shot with one bullet. One was Indira was married off and the other one was that Nehru dynasty got the name of Gandhi on which they have capitalized and captured political power. Poor sons of real Gandhi faded away unsung and un heard while foolish Indians vote blindly devoid of real brains. Haa..haaa..heee..hee

Gandhi.. eee..eee….Very true. In politics, love and wars everything is fair. ( Cries) Where are my sons? Where are you Devdas?

Nehru. Patel. You are unfair.

Gandhi. Why?

Nehru. You are blaming me. Who stopped you from becoming President?
You pushed us into positions and if you lived long would have influenced us. Our lives would have become miserable with your pressures. You were already pressurizing us to give Pakistan 55 crores of rupees.

Gandhi. They had to be given. Any how I left world. Many guys would have celebrated it.

Nehru. I do not know who felt happy. I cried like hell.

Gandhi. That is fine. Relax.

Patel. Bapu. We have spent enough time. I am also feeling tired. Let us go.

( The trio vanish into distance)

CURTAIN FALLS