ANSUYA: (Joyfully.) I don’t know what those words mean, but it sounds so exciting, Deepak! I’ll ask Amma. I shall work hard in Bombay.
(Going close to him.)
Oh, it is a beautiful dream.
DEEPAK: (Holding her in his arms.) It’s going to come true.
ANSUYA: You mean it!
DEEPAK: Come here.
(They kiss.)
ANSUYA: I still can’t believe it.
(They kiss again.)
Come, let’s go back to the others.
DEEPAK: Shh! Not yet.
ANSUYA: I’m afraid of your mother.
DEEPAK: Come, let’s go to your room.
ANSUYA: It’s late. It isn’t right.
DEEPAK: Ansu, I need you in Bombay. It’s lonely with just Ma and … and sometimes she gets too much. She sits on my back like a monkey. She’s turned my father into a vegetable. And she’s going to do it to me too.
ANSUYA: Shh!
DEEPAK: I need you to … to save me from her.
(Pause.)
Come, let’s go to your room.
ANSUYA: No.
DEEPAK: Come on, yaar.
ANSUYA: Do you really think we should?
DEEPAK: Yes.
ANSUYA: (Getting up to go.) I don’t trust myself. I … I mean, I’m so drunk with all this happiness and …
DEEPAK: (Softly.) Let’s go.
ANSUYA: I can’t believe this is happening.
DEEPAK: (Tenderly.) Everything is going to be all right.
(Exuent and fade. Lights come up on the drawing room. It is two hours later. Rai Saheb and Chitra have returned.)
AMRITA: How was the Club?
RAI SAHEB: (Uncomfortably.) Fine, fine.
(Looks bored.)
I say, I need another drink. (Pours himself one.)
Come on, let’s do something. Let’s play a game.
AMRITA: Oh Bunty, you and your silly games.
CHITRA: Didi, bachche kahan gai?
AMRITA: They were on the verandah awhile ago.
MAMU: What could be keeping them?
RAI SAHEB: What shall we play?
AMRITA: They must have gone for a walk. It’s stopped raining.
CHITRA: (Frantically.) My Deepak! He’ll catch a chill.
RAI SAHEB: Or the cat will catch Deepak.
CHITRA: Ji?
MAMU: Cats are known to have killed people.
CHITRA: Hey Ram!
AMRITA: Stop it, the two of you!
CHITRA: (Nervously.) My Deepak, he has disappeared. That boy will be the death of me.
AMRITA: Calm down, they will be here soon.
MAMU: (To Amrita.) You are too easy going, leaving them alone like that.
AMRITA: Shame on you, Karan. A liberal person like you, talking like this.
MAMU: Anything can happen between two young people.
RAI SAHEB: My dear, that is the fun of being young. What’s in a little hanky-panky …?
(And he gives Chitra a whack on her bum.)
CHITRA: (Giggling.) Rai Saheb! You are naughty.
RAI SAHEB: Come on, let me fill your glass, my darling.
CHITRA: (Slightly high.) Just a tiny bit.
RAI SAHEB: I know, we’ll play charades.
MAMU: Oh no!
(Fade. Deepak and Ansuya emerge on the veranda, looking dishevelled.)
DEEPAK: Hurry, they will be looking for us.
ANSUYA: I love you, Deepak.
DEEPAK: Comb your hair. (Nervous.)
Here, use my comb.
ANSUYA: (Combing her hair.) I don’t want to go in. I want to stay with you.
DEEPAK: What will they think, yaar? I told you we shouldn’t have stayed in the bedroom for so long.
ANSUYA: I love you, Deepak.
DEEPAK: Come on!
(Fade. Lights come up on the drawing room. The seating order for the next scene is important. It is vaguely a circle. Deepak and Ansuya enter. They take positions in a clockwise order as follows: Deepak, Chitra, Rai Saheb, Ansuya, Amrita and Mamu. Mamu will change his position midway, between Chitra and Rai Saheb.)
RAI SAHEB: So, it’s decided. We’re going to play ‘Truth or Dare.’
AMRITA: Here they are!
CHITRA: (To Deepak.) Mere bachche!
RAI SAHEB: (With a smile.) Your ‘bachcha’ is fine. You’re both just in time. We were going to play ‘Truth or Dare.’
AMRITA: For heaven’ s sake, Bunty! It’s a game girls play in boarding school.
DEEPAK: (To Rai Saheb.) How do you play it?
RAI SAHEB: Dinky, Chippy and their crowd play it all the time. We sit in a circle. You are asked, ‘Truth or Dare?’ If you choose ‘truth’, you are asked a question and you must answer it truthfully.
DEEPAK: And if it is ‘dare?’
RAI SAHEB: Then you are dared to do something. And we go round the room; the ones who put the questions go clockwise and those who reply go anti-clockwise.
DEEPAK: Who starts?
RAI SAHEB: You.
DEEPAK: Me? (Laughs.)
All right.
(Turns to Mamu.)
Karan Uncle, Truth or Dare?
MAMU: This is silly! I don’t want to play.
AMRITA: Come on, Karan, it’s only a game.
MAMU: No.
RAI SAHEB: Be a sport, Karan Chand.
MAMU: No.
RAI SAHEB: Then it’s your turn, Amrita.
AMRITA: Me? Must you begin with me?
RAI SAHEB: Yes, we are going anti-clockwise, remember?
AMRITA: (To Deepak.) Then ask me an easy question, son.
DEEPAK: All right, Aunty. Truth or Dare?
AMRITA: Truth.
DEEPAK: Let me think. All right Aunty, what do you want more than anything in the world?
(Pause. Amrita thinks.)
RAI SAHEB: Come on, my dear.
AMRITA: Let me think, Bunty.
(Stark silence. All eyes are on Amrita. Suddenly, there are tears in Amrita’s eyes.)
AMRITA: I … I don’t want to lose this house.
RAI SAHEB: Good! That was a truth. But only half a truth.
(Amrita gets up, wipes her eyes, goes to the window.)
AMRITA: I’ve always loved to look out of this window. God knows, I love this house.
(To Ansuya.)
Your father and I used to sleep in the big room upstairs. I used to wake up, my heart full of happiness each morning. And I’d rush down and look out of this window. Once we were here in January and we were caught in a snowstorm. It was all white outside. Oh, Ansu, it was heaven!
(Pause.)
I wish I could forget the past. If there is one good thing left in our lives, it is this house.
DEEPAK: Aunty, you could turn the house into an exclusive season hotel … just six months a year … and you could still enjoy it the rest of the time.
AMRITA: My dear,
