THE VISITOR

THE - VISITOR

Characters:

Ravi                -    Alcoholic, Old man

Saumya           -    Ravi’s daughter

Sanjay             -    Ravi’s friend

Jogi                 -   Saumya’s boy friend

Krishna           -   Visitor

(As the curtain opens, there is mellow light on the old man, sitting in his room and sipping a drink and in the background Mozrat’s Allegro Motto is being played).

Ravi                - Oh!  What a tangled web, I have woven around myself (hysterical laughter).

(Sanjay enters)

Sanjay                         - Hi Buddy!

 Ravi               - Come in Chappy.  Take a seat.  Be comfortable

(Sanjay about to sit on the on the chair, meant for the visitor).

Ravi                - (gets irritated and remarks sharply) Not there Sanjay!

Sanjay             - (raises his eyebrows) Why pray?

Ravi                - (softly) It is for some one special

Sanjay             - (inquisitively) Pray,   for whom is it?

Ravi                - (gets up from his chair and moves towards the visitor’s chair) I told you, it is for someone special.

Sanjay             - Okay

Ravi                - Fix a drink Sanjay.  I got this lovely Contessa Rum from the army canteen.  I have consumed  most of it.  You see I am a bit tipsy,  but not quite drunk.

Sanjay             - (pathetically) You  are slowly  but surely turning into an alcoholic. Why do you not join a rehab or AA? Dear friend your liver , would  have been damaged beyond repair.

Ravi                - (ignores the comment, sits down)

                        - (Silence)

Sanjay             - (Perturbed) Look friend, I want to know something about you.  Though we have known each other for over a month now, I hardly know you.  You are the most brilliant guy in the organisation, but  are destroying yourself. (agitated) Dammit, why are you so very silent.

Ravi                - My dear Sanjay, to be silent – does not imply, that one is inactive.  See how active I am with Contessa (cynical laughter).

Sanjay             - (depressed)  You are a tormented soul, so unhappy.

Ravi                - (excitedly) Many people are extremely happy but are absolutely worthless to this society.  And dear friend look at almighty god, he is so quiet, yet so very active.

Sanjay             - Hyperactive, I dare say!  Tell me friend, reveal to me all your troubles.  You need a cushioning effect.  You need a crutch.

Ravi                - (sharply) I believe, in this democracy, I have a right to my privacy.

Sanjay             - (comfortingly, places  his arm around Ravi) I know a trifle about your story.   People suffer, but  they do not become mental wrecks.They  post a fight and stage a recovery.

Ravi                - (raises his voice) Dear friend, check on your statistics.  Almost 80 million people in this country suffer from schizophrenia.

Sanjay             - (nods) Ok forget about this.  You see, I have come here for a specific purpose.  One, the boss wishes to meet you.  To him, you are an absolute wastrel.  You are drunk most of the time, unfit for any job.  He intends to chuck you out.How will  you survive?

Ravi                - (interrupts) That’s nothing new for me, (sighs) I have changed so many jobs in my life, that I have lost count of them, like a prostitute changing her men.  I have never lead a settled life and I guess, I will never do so.  I cannot fit into any system.  This system has to revolve around me. (agitatedly).  Take the project regarding attracting  foreign investment  for instance, I conceived a brilliant programme.  And the ‘boss’ rejected all my ideas, for something absolutely puerile.  How can I work here ? I will never do so.  Anything more?

Sanjay             - (softly) yes.................I believe, you are locked up all night long in this room and keep talking to yourself or to some one...................

Ravi                - (interrupts) Yes to someone special.

Sanjay             - (eagerly) Who is this person?  Some he or she...................

Ravi                - (sights) Well........neither a he and nor a she.  But (pause) wait a minute. How are you privy to this sacred information?

Sanjay             - Your daughter.

Ravi                - (cynical laughter) Saumya, like mother like daughter.  Always prying and poking her nose.  (long pause).  How dearly, I miss my son.  Poor chap, died in an air crash.  Anything more?

Sanjay             - (sympathetically)  Look Ravi, the suffering  of mankind is not in you.  You do not have to bear the cross.  We all suffer.  You are no different.  There are constant challenges and constant responses to such challenges.  How we respond and not react is the recipe for success. Or else we hurtle into a precipice . 

(silence)           

Ravi                - I guess, you must be getting late for dinner.  I am sorry Saumya is not here, to offer you something.  Besides, I am feeling too lazy to make anything wholesome................

(Saumya enters)

Saumya           - (barges in) Hi dad!

Ravi                - Come on in, so how was the day of my pretty daughter?

Saumya           - Hello uncle Sanjay.

Sanjay             - (admiringly) Hello.  How are you?

Saumya           - (picks up a magazine and sits down).

Ravi                - So daughter, you have been spying on me, on the sly.

Saumya           - (surprised) What are you talking about dad?

Ravi                -(sharply) What have you been talking about this visitor’s business to Sanjay.

Saumya           -(surprised) Oh nothing!

Ravi                -(gets up, fixes a drink) My dear daughter, secrecy seems to be the only thing which makes my life mysterious.  And secrets and mysteries keep me alive and kicking apart from my lovely and adorable drink.  Had I kept all the  secrets to myself, no one would have known about my brilliant thesis.

A brilliant piece on monetary supply.  But that......................bastard......................my dear friend stole it away right under my nose.  And I  was oblivious to this reality.  And my wife......your mother, ran away with him.  She found me impotent.  Nymphomaniac..........that’s what she was. I lost my thesis and also my wife. Lost both economic and physical curves.

Saumya           - Dad................Please be quiet...............

Sanjay             - (rises) I think,  I better leave.................

Ravi                - (forces Sanjay to sit down) Hey, you have come to hear my story.  So why don’t you listen to  its finer points.  The curves, plateaus and gradients in my life.

Sanjay             - (gets up) Some other time.  But please come tomorrow to the office.  The boss want’s to meet you..........

Ravi                - (cuts him short) Tell him to go for a Six............................

(Sanjay leaves)

Ravi                - So, daughter where were all day?

Saumya           - With Jogi, he wants to marry me.

Ravi                - (cynical laughter) Ha! Marry you? You know as OSCAR Wilde put it, “men marry because they are bored and women marry because they are curious, so why marry at all?  In any case both remain discontented and disappointed.

Saumya           - And does this epigram apply to you as well?

Ravi                -(softly) But I am no man.  I am a bloody impotent moron.

Saumya           - (earnestly) But dad, Jogi is a good guy.

Ravi                -I do not deny it.  But he is flirt too.  My wife deserted me, may be your husband will do the same. Hence be careful. It runs in our genes. Remember those who forget history are condemned to repeat it , not repeal . And who knows , you may also get addicted  to say drugs, alcohol  etall..........

Saumya           - (bursts out) Oh dad, you are so cruel! (cries loudly).

Ravi                - (helplessly) Cool it...........And don’t cry..................I was only cautioning you..........

Saumya           - No you are mean

Ravi                - (comfortingly) My daughter, do not seek pleasures in a way that will destroy you.  And let me warn you, all contact born pleasures only  trigger misery.............            ((Saumya runs away)

Ravi                - (philosophically and begins a soliloquy) She too ran away.  But she will come back.  The only sensible person in our family.  I was the only son among six sisters.  My parents treated me more like a girl.  They chaperoned me.  Ravi don’t  do this.........Ravi don’t drive the car too fast etc.,......I shied away from everyone, I was living in a cloistered set up.  They did not allow my talents to blossom.  And when the girl next door enticed me, I got carried away.  Well, who does not at a particular age.  My wife too, got carried away at a much later stage.  And she was supposed to be a mature woman.

You see, we all have skeletons in our cup boards.  And maintain a clean image for the society.  As a therapeutic and cathartic measure  take dips in the Ganges. Call it Swacch Ganga Abhiyan ( Ha!)  Can Ganga in its bosom absorb all our sins.  Governments conspire in our blasphemy , licentious behavior and subsequent  reformation by launching Clean GANGA operation programmes   .............

Let me revert to my story.  After finishing school,  I found myself in a college.  A new atmosphere and new found freedom.  I fell for the vices and variety of pleasures.  And I guess  no civilized person regrets a pleasure.  Perhaps an uncivilized chap does not know what pleasure is.............

A  girl in my life provided me direction and I started realizing my latent potential . Just to please her , I broke decades old record and stood first in the University in Economics. The country and the  economy was looking for a savior and there was a Keynes in the college. But I could not share my joy with the girl who had kindled the spirit in me.     All  achievements are ultimately hollow, if you have no one to share them with. She just vanished from the scene like an apparition .She was physically assaulted , abused in  the public transport system  and  perished. We held candle light marches , TV channels and social media held debates , laws were enacted . But all in vain . I lost the one who ignited the spirit in me and slowly took to spirits . She fired imagination and passion among women groups but  things have not changed.........

My family and parents were keen that I join the administrative services. For them  my passion for economics and perhaps the one sided love for the girl meant nothing. .  

I  failed to qualify for the civil services , but qualified in the eyes of my Professor's daughter. It was a case of  reverse 2 States. A Tamil Brahmin boy and a Punjabi girl .We fell in love and married. She was intellectually stimulated by me and physically by a co- researcher.  We  were sandwiched by a friend(snake). This guy surreptitiously loved my girlfriend. They shared the bed while I was in the library with her father , purportedly working on my research. 

But how did my wife desert me?  My wife, whom I loved so dearly.  She just left me in the lurch. And I felt so impotent.  I was left in a cocoon.  No one to comfort me.  She was bugged with my research work.  Bloody  years of unemployment.  Just research....................research.........

One  fine day, my friend just walked away with my thesis.  He sold all my ideas to a multinational and comfortably  landed with a job in the IBRD.  My wife followed him.  Dear friends ( addresses the audience), I never realised that for all   years, my wife was sleeping with my closest friend(snake). And she produced two children  as I prodigiously produced papers on monetary supply.

Later chaps told me, my son was through that ungrateful friend.  Why did I not undergo a DNA test? Oh I was destroyed that day.  And if I picked up the OLD MONK (picked up a bottle) how can anyone blame me? I was getting old, and I was no monk.  So, I could just drink ‘old monk’.

Our Society says that our past is our foundation, the present our material and the future our aim and summit.  But I had no past no  present and I see a dark future................

(Light fades out and there is light on the other part of the stage, a bench in a garden lies unoccupied).

(Jogi and Saumya enter and sit on that bench).

Jogi                 - Oh come darling....................you have destroyed  the whole evening talking about your dad.

Saumya           - (softly) Jogi, I am so very worked up about my dad.  He is slowly becoming a neurotic.

Jogi                 - (Laughs) I thought he was one already.

Saumya           - (Hurt) Now you don’t start off.

Jogi                 - (puts his arm around Saumya) See, once we marry, your dad may feel better,Isn’t this a practical solution?

Saumya           - (gets up) But he does not find you trustworthy.

Jogi                 - (Sharply) Oh, he cannot trust anyone.  He is selfish.  You are his only support and he does not wish to part with you.  He will lean on you  like a marionette.

Saumya           - (Retorts)- But that is not the point.

Jogi                 -(rises) What  selfishness, to keep one woman all to oneself!

Saumya           -Only no knows the bitterness of love, who has deeply loved some one.

Jogi                 - Your dad is worse than an animal.

Saumya           - (aggressively) Shut up!

Jogi                 - O.K. Cool it.  For god’s sake do not spoil my trip.

Saumya           - (cries) Will you marry me? (puts her head on Jogi’s shoulder).

Jogi                 -You girls, I tell you, shed copious tears, at the drop of  a hat.

(silence)

Saumya           -You know Jogi, these days Pa is locked up all night long in his room.  And he talks to some one for hours together.  I wonder whether it is a hallucination or perhaps...........

Jogi                 - Your dad is suffering from psychosis.  We should take him to a psychiatrist soon.  I am sure he will get well.

Saumya           - Never.........

Jogi                 - Oh.  Come on be optimistic.

Saumya           -You are so, different from my dad.  He is always morose.  My home is like a cage......................

Jogi                 - (laughs) And you are a bird trapped in it.............................

Saumya           - (Begs) Jogi, Please come with me to our place.  I want to get to the root of this matter.  I intend to find out who is haunting him and what is my dad upto?

Jogi                 - (pauses for a moment) At her majesty's feet.  Let’s go.

(they leave and light fades out.  Mellow light appears, where Ravi is sitting).

Ravi                - It is 10.30 now and Saumya has not returned.  Just like her mother.  Shalini my wife used to come late and I was always engrossed with  demand and supply curves.  I had no time for her.......................curves.  But it is time for our friend to come.

Oh.  I hear the flute.......................(darkness)

Oh. There I seem him.  There he is............................

Narayanaya Vidhmahe

Vasudevaya Dhimahe

Tano Vishnu Prachodayatu

(Bright Light)

Welcome your lordship.

Lord Krishna – Am I late.....................

Ravi                - Oh, how can you be, my lord.  You are always here.  You are omni present, omni potent and omni scient.  Only I was impotent.

Krishna           -(Smiles) I have come to you.  Lord always takes the human body, for the sake of close pure souls who love the lord.

(Sits on the decked up chair)

Ravi                - Lord, what can I offer you.  You won’t drink.  Yes let me offer you Amul Butter.  This is not the typical Nandgaon variety through...........................

Krishna           - (nods) I will get an indigestion, if I eat this.  Lord Budda too died of indigestion.  He had pork, or was it mushrooms . Any way Buddhism mushroomed  ( Ha!).

Ravi                - But you are indestructible.

Krishna           - (Smiles)

Ravi                 - Lord please play the flute for me.

Krishna           - (Plays Rag Malkauns)

Ravi                -Your Lordship.  I wish to hear something western.  I always freaked out on Jim Reeves.  Please play the guitar for me..........the song you sang yesterday..............please.

Krishna           - Ravi should I play it on this flute...............

Ravi                - No my lord (laughs)...........I will get you a guitar.  (Runs to brings one).

Krishna           - (Sings)

                        Rail Roads Steam Boats

                        River sand canals

                        Yonder comes the sucker

                        And he’s got my girl and she’s gone gone gone and I bid her my last farewell.

Ravi                - Encore my lord.

Krishna           - (Repeats)

Ravi                - (sits at the feet of Krishna)

Holy father, why do I suffer so much.

Krishna           - We are born free.

yet each creature is in love with his chains.  This is the paradox and an inextricable knot of our nature.

Ravi                - (nods his heads violently) Makes no sense to me.

Krishna           - Ravi you always suffered from envy.  You see, as Betrand Russel said.  “If you envy, you may have to envy Napolean.  And Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander and Alexander.  I dare say envied Hercules, who never existed.”  So why envy at all?

Ravi                -But that is not true..................

Krishna           - Ravi, two most potent causes of unhappiness are worry and envy.  Avoid them.  And true spiritual  life exists in avoidance of envy, craving for pleasure, anger and harsh speech. Just accept my SOHAM swaroop . Seek refuge in me and find solace.

Ravi                - (changes the subject) Lord, why do people in the world call you the ‘Blue God’.

Krishna           - (smiles) Do they? You see when Swami Vivekananda went to Chicago in 1893 he was asked the same question.  He did not reply and continued with his speech.  He went on and on.  He expressed the audience and suddenly he jumped out of the window and ran.  The entire crowd followed suit.  Suddenly, Vivekananda stopped and asked them.  “Where are you running”?

The mass of people stupefied knew not, where they were running.  You see, when I played the flute, all the gopis, cows and everyone were  hypnotized and transfixed .  It was pure love, absolutely divine and sublime nothing more and nothing less.

Ravi                - (Lord kindly play the flute again).

Krishna           - (obliges) and plays Raag Hamswadhani .

Ravi                - Lord when will I get peace of mind?

Krishna           - Dear friend, bondage is of mind and freedom is also of mind.  Ramakrishna Paramahamsa explained it beautifully.  He said  “mind is like a white cloth just returned from the laundry, it will be red if you dip it in red dye and blue if you dip it in blue dyes.  It will assume whatever colour you dip it in”.....................

Ravi                - (sadly) but I have led just a wasted life.  And I feel very aged  and tired  like 1000 years old.

Krishna           - (puts his hand on Ravi’s head).

Only years spent uselessly make you grow old.  Life is immortal.  We believe in Nishkama Karma and not in Nishkarma Kama.

Ravi                - (angrily) You  can say all this, because you are divine.  Do you think, rebels like me can fit into this system.  You also were a rebel.  How come you managed?  You killed your uncle.  You slayed a  thousand Kauravas.  You helped Arjun to kill Karna.  My favourite character from Mahabharata.

Krishna           -(Laughs) All Indians admire the character of Karna.  He is a bit of idealism, a bit of valour and a bit of affection for friends who adore him.  Besides he is the eternal downtrodden, yet he fights.  Coming to your previous question, you see “Man’s duty is to be just and active and leave the rest to me.  I am that  I am”.  I am SOHAM.  I believe, that summarizes the whole truth.

Now you talked about slaying of Kauravas.  Why did not Duryodhana give even 5 villages to the 5 brothers?  What was your chivalrous Karna doing, when Draupadi was being stripped naked?  All of them, Dhritirashtra, Bheeshma,  Drona, Kripacharya sat petrified though Vidur spoke his mind.    Not one gesticulated  so I had to save Druapadi?  Did anyone else raise a finger?

Ravi                - (gets up) Lord please teach me a prayer which can change my life.

Krishna           - Repeat after me..............................(Krishna gives Vishwaroopa Darshan and Ravi on his knees)

God, grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change.

Ravi                -(repeats).

Krishna          - Courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference

Ravi                - (repeats)

(Meanwhile Saumya and Jogi enter the stage and start knocking the door).

Krishna           - Your daughter and her boy friend have come.  I can hear them.

Ravi                - I hear them too.  But they will not disturb us.

Krishna           - I told your Ravi, the moment anyone enters, I will disappear and never see you till the day of judgement.

Ravi                -Oh? Lord when will you free me from this bondage of metempsychosis.

(lights on Saumya and Jogi)

Saumya           - Shh! Jogi be quiet.  Dad will hear us.

Jogi                 - I hear him talking

Saumya           - (excitedly) Is there one voice or two voices?

Jogi                 - (plainly) I hear just one voice.  Rather a noise to me.

Saumya           - No I can hear two voices.

Jogi                 -(irritatedly) Your mind is all worked up and conditioned.

Saumya           - No I mean it.

Jogi                 - May be your lunatic dad is practising ventriloquism

Saumya           - Lets break open the door.

(They bang the door)

(Lights on Krishna and Ravi)

Krishna           - I better leave now...................

Ravi                - No your lordship.  Please do not leave me like this in an absolute rudderless state.

Krishna           - Remember one thing Ravi, It is the lord who sets all in motion from the depths of the being.  It is his will that diverts and his force that acts.

(flute sound and Krishna disappears)

(Saumya and Jogi force their way into the room)

Ravi                - What the bloody hell?  Why should you people spoil my trip each time?

Saumya           - (Looking around) Dad, whom were you talking to?

Ravi                - (Sharply) Bitch.  A perfect carbon copy of your mother, always prying get away from my life.  Why have you stolen the most precious thing of my life.  Oh Krishna, where are you....................Krishna

(cries aloud)

Jogi                 - (concerned) Your dad has lost his senses.  We better take him to a psychiatrist right away.......................

Ravi                - (perturbed) YOU shut up..............you son of a.....................

Saumya           - Dad.....................please........................

Ravi                - Leave me all of you. (Runs to the table and from the drawer picks up a bottle and empties it) and Ravi falls in the chair meant for the visitor.

Jogi                 - Poison.................

Saumya           - (bursts aloud)..............Dad! and falls down next to her dad.

(Silence) (Jogi strolls across)

Jogi                 - What is this? A Flute? Was really lord Krishna here or is it an illusion.  (picks up the guitar).  If the old guy purchased a guitar, he could have even purchased a flute.  (pause)

Day and night while you are awake, sleeping or dreaming only illusions fill you.  There is a very thin line which separates illusion from reality.

                                                            (curtain)