MAMU: Don’t ‘old boy’ me.
RAI SAHEB: Ready?
(Mamu nods reluctantly.)
What is your greatest wish?
MAMU: Behold, ladies and gentlemen, before you is the portrait of a failure. No, no … a classic failure. The question is: why do some men succeed while others fail?
RAI SAHEB: We don’t need a lecture, Professor.
MAMU: (Ignoring him.) Take my case, for example: a drowning man …
AMRITA: What are you talking about, Karan?
RAI SAHEB: He’s been drinking?.
(To Mamu.)
Don’t be dramatic, dear boy. Just answer the question.
MAMU: Shut up!
CHITRA: (Unbelieving.) He told Rai Saheb to ‘shut up’!
DEEPAK: Shut up, Ma!
CHITRA: (Hurt.) My son tells me to ‘shut up?’
DEEPAK: Shh!
MAMU: (Continuing as if there was no interruption.) The Question is: Why is Deepak a success and I a failure? A very good question. As a young man, I stood first at the University; I got into the ICS. But I chose to become a scholar and to teach. Because I had ideals and I wanted to pass them on to young people. Today, I could have been a loathsome diplomat, perhaps even a junior ambassador to some minor country. At least, I would have had some respect. I feel cheated.
(Pause.)
What is the moral of the story? Don’t have ideals. Go for worldly success.
(Pause.)
But, surely that isn’t right? When a young person cannot stand the way things are, then he must question the social order. The world is unjust. There is such misery and pain. I wanted answers to those questions. And what did I become? A dusty professor, of no use to anyone.
ANSUYA: That’s not true, Mamu. You created a whole generation of idealistic young people.
MAMU: No, my students only wanted to pass exams. All they did was to copy my lecture notes. Of what possible use is an armchair intellectual to the world? All talk and no action.
(Bitterly.)
The result? No one wants me anymore … except my cat.
ANSUYA: That’s not true, Mamu. You gave me all that’s good in me.
RAI SAHEB: This is against the rules of the game. You can’t help him, Ansuya.
ANSUYA: You don’t understand. He needs me.
MAMU: (Calmly.) Well, maybe that is the way it was meant to be. I sat here tonight on Diwali night, and I watched you, Ansuya. I watched you and Deepak. And I looked at myself. You were looking to the future, I was looking to the past. It finally snapped!
(Pause.)
Tell me, you wise people, what should I do with my life? Should I shoot myself?
RAI SAHEB: Stop being dramatic.
AMRITA: I don’t like this game.
DEEPAK: This is embarrassing.
RAI SAHEB: It is sickening.
(Realizing.)
But he still hasn’t answered the question.
Are you listening, Karan Chand? Answer the question.
MAMU: (Afraid.) I … I’m not going to answer that question.
(The tempo increases.)
ANSUYA: I’m afraid, Amma. Let’s stop the game, Bunty Uncle.
RAI SAHEB: We can’t wait all night, Professor Saheb.
MAMU: No … no.
ANSUYA: I think we’ve gone too far this time.
RAI SAHEB: Well?
MAMU: (Looking at Amrita, then at Ansuya.) I don’t know … do we have to go through with this?
(Turning to Ansuya.)
AMRITA: (Worried.) What is going on?
ANSUYA: I don’t like what’s going on.
RAI SAHEB: Do you know what it is?
ANSUYA: I don’t like it.
DEEPAK: (Puzzled.) What’s going on, yaar?
ANSUYA: (Scared.) Stop the game!
DEEPAK: (Worried.) What the hell, yaar?
RAI SAHEB: (Silencing everyone.) Shh! Answer the question, Karan Chand.
What is your greatest wish?
(Pause.)
Is it for something in this room? No? Then is it for someone in this room? It is, isn’t it? Who is it? It’s not Amrita, it’s not Deepak, it’s not Chitra, it’s certainly not me. Then who is it? Say it, Karan Chand! Say it!
MAMU: I … I … Ansuya, don’t go to Bombay … don’t leave me!
RAI SAHEB: Got you!
ANSUYA: Mamu! What are you saying?
(Everybody starts speaking at once. They make exaggerated gestures to each other throughout the ensuing dialogue between Ansuya and Mamu, until Ansuya’s outburst, when there is a sudden silence.)
AMRITA: What’s this?
RAI SAHEB: Dirty old man! This is incestuous. I always knew it.
DEEPAK: (Out of his depth.) I say, yaar … What the hell’s going on, yaar?
CHITRA: Shameful! With his own niece!
AMRITA: Are you mad, Karan?
MAMU: Ansu, forgive me. You must not leave me, please!
ANSUYA: Why are you doing this, Mamu?
MAMU: Ansu …
ANSUYA: (Screaming.) No, Mamu, no!
MAMU: I … I … can’t live without you.
ANSUYA: Stop it, Mamu.
MAMU: Ansuya!
ANSUYA: (Outburst.) No! I’m Deepak’s!
(Sudden silence. Ansuya begins to cry.)
CHITRA: Deepak’s?
ANSUYA: You made me say it, Mamu. I love Deepak.
CHITRA: Yeh kya ho raha hai?
DEEPAK: I’ll explain, Ma. Later.
ANSUYA: I’m sorry, Deepak. I had to say it.
MAMU: It’s because he’s young.
ANSUYA: Mamu!
RAI SAHEB: Filthy, I say. Abusing his own sister’s trust.
MAMU: (Wailing.) No, no! Oh God! Not that! I never …
AMRITA: (In a strange, high-pitched voice.) I want everyone to be quiet. Please. This is my house, my brother and my daughter. I will speak. You fine people, what are you trying to do? We have lost everything. Why are you trying to destroy my family? It’s all that I have left. We’ve lost the way we lived. But there was a time … oh yes, there was a time. But it is gone now. All we have left is ourselves, the three of us. Why must you judge us? We have suffered, and we drew close to each other in our suffering. You are trying to take even that away …
(Pause.)
Yes Chitra, the chandeliers, the paintings are gone. For you, they were things—things to be bought and sold for money. But for us, they were our life and the way we lived. We were happy once upon a time, and we didn’t ask for any more.
(Pause.)
You Bunty, you have
