Back
in the village, Naran now looks at the place he had grown in. The village is
bald and barren. Mango and coconut groves, which once added luster to the
beauty of the village, have now yielded ground to high-rise buildings. The
village is now wearing a new cap…. cap of modernity and development. The new bus
station is a quite a sight of him as it was not there before. People are
swarming a wine shop that had sprouted near the village temple. ‘Change seems
to be the new mantra of the village, but I feel I don’t belong here,’ he
thought.
When
he comes close to his house, he sees his mother sitting in the courtyard,
chatting animatedly with a woman, and laughing. Naran’s heart tugs at the sight
as he thinks how his mother could laugh heartily forgetting the premature death
of his elder son. A moment later, Shoba comes out of his house, and his heart
misses a beat. It’s with great effort that he restrains his thought of going
over to her and taking her in his arms.
Draping
herself in a gorgeous Kanjeevaram silk sari with a matching designer blouse,
Shoba looks like a bride. As is her wont, she sports her long, dangling hair in
plaits and binds its end with tassels. Strands of jasmine flowers fastened to
the upper part of the plaits near her nape make the air balmy. But the rupee
size Bindi she is sporting in her forehead tells a different story as it
unmistakably confirms that she is married. Now, Keshav also comes out of the
house, tickles Shoba’s hip. She laughs aloud and then blushes.
“Shoba
is more practical and down to earth girl,” Naran hears her mother telling the
woman sitting by her side. “When she saw Naran’s shattered body on the railway
track, she cried her head off. It took me two years to convince her to marry
Keshav. I told her that Naran always thought of her as part of his family and
she would be honoring his wish if only she married Keshav. With much
reluctance, she married my younger son. She is now happy, has forgotten Naran’s
love as a bad dream. God bless the couple.”
Naran’s
soul screams. He feels as if he gets a train run over his rented body again. He
also feels that he is bleeding in his chest. ‘Betrayal… a great betrayal’ he
moans. He fights back an impulsiveness to go and strangulate Shoba.
Disappointed and distressed by the bizarre scene he saw in his home, Naran
moves away from the place in quick patter without even looking at Shoba or
bothering about the tears that wells up in his eyes.
He
is now far away from his village and treacherous home. The place he is now
standing at seems to be the village forest as he cannot see any human habitats
out there. Still not able to stomach the betrayal perpetrated on him by Shoba
and his family, he yells, stomps his feet on the ground and calls out King
Yama.]
Naran
King
Yama! Yamaraj! Do you hear me?
[Before
long, Naran sees a ball of fire rolling down from the sky, and King Yama jumps
out of it riding a water buffalo.]
King
Yama
Why,
Naran? Why did you call me?
Naran
Oh,
King! My swan has become a crow. I lost my love, my Shoba. She married my
brother Keshav. Both of them betrayed me. Who said love is divine?
King
Yama
None,
but you. Love can never be divine, Naran. It’s an ugly duck. You dress it
up with your blind emotions and imaginations and make it look like a dancing
peacock. Oh, you… a poor star-crossed lover! Don’t you know that love has no
shape or soul as it’s nothing but your alter ego filled with raw passions? We
now have your Shakespeare in our midst. We brought him from his Stratford home
centuries back. I often hear the playwright talking about love with a scorn. He
says: “Love is not a tender thing. It is too rough, too rude, and too
boisterous and it pricks like thorn.”
Naran
Oh,
King! Stop preaching me about love. Tell me, why did Shoba abandon me and marry
my brother?
King
Yama
That’s
not her fault, its cruel play of fate. You are dead for three years. Do you
still want her to remain hooked to your memories? Women marry men not memories.
Don’t you men remarry after the death of your wives?
Naran
Enough,
King…. enough of the goddamned love. I now learn that love is
falsehood-personified. Take me back to your Kingdom. I don’t want to live here
as the earth is littered with betrayers and chameleons.
King
Yama
No,
Naran. I can’t do that. As I said earlier, an option once selected cannot be
reversed.
Naran
[Sobs]
Then, what you want me to do?
King
Yama
Be
on the earth for sometime and teach people about the futility of love; tell
them that love is not be-all and end-all of life.
Naran
Sometime
on earth!!! How long, King?
King
Yama
Fourteen
years.
Naran
Fourteen
years!!! [He faints, and King Yama disappears from the scene]
[Concluded]
P.S.
[Benvolio, the kinsman of Romeo’s family in Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and
Juliet is the invisible hero of this short, amateur play, which reflects his
uncharitable and unpalatable remarks against love. While Benevolian remarks
against love find space here in this play, I don’t subscribe to his views. To
me, love is universal; the mellifluous song of the soul.]
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