Scene: A dining table, and four people are seated around it. Among them; one looks bored, not, apparently interested in anything more than the cigarette, which he's twirling, in great concentration, between his fingers. Two others are deeply engrossed in a game of chess, which, of course, is entertainment in its highest form. The last is deeply immersed in a newspaper, so much that a few tufts of hair are seen above it.
Mohan (apparently disgusted, throws off the newspaper): I wouldn't believe it. Honestly, this is going too far. Eleven people died because of riots. Poof! Bah! Woof!
Rohan (trying, and failing, to stifle an enormous yawn): Ye-e-e-ah. Great.
Ram (not particularly pleased with the way his game is going): Lucky people. Humph.
Shyam (excited with his new move): Ah, yes. Certainly. Escaping nearly forty years of punishment�
Mohan: Eh? Really?
Shyam: Yes. Really. The real life expectancy is around seventy. On the average, victims are thirty. So, that would be escaping forty -
Mohan (not listening): I think this Lord Rama should put his foot down, shouldn't he?
Rohan (kicking the ground with his feet): Yeah. Put his foot down, shouldn't he?
Mohan: Well, at least, if I had that many riots to my name, I'd -
Ram (now frustrated): Gods do not put their foots - feet - down!
Mohan: No? Why not? Don't they - uh - this Lord Rama is a God?
Shyam: Certainly.
Mohan: That's not the point. The point is that, God or no God-
Shyam: The point is that, you could do with understanding God a little better.
Mohan: Ah, I see. And how much have you understood?
Shyam: That you cannot comprehend what God is all about. Because you first need to have an absolute faith in him. Only then you can comprehend him.
Mohan(furious): How very convenient.
Shyam (continuing with the tone of a great seer): He can do anything. He can make all you wishes get transformed to reality, he can even stop the-
Mohan: So that's it. I thought so. I knew it. That's it. My doubts are confirmed.
Shyam (impatiently, all the seerly tones gone): Eh? You know? What?
Mohan: Your belief in the great 'him' is entirely based, not on faith, but on hope. Hope that you will have all your wishes fulfilled. (suddenly raising his voice) you are nothing but an old cunning opportunistic - opportunistic - opportunistic -(on finding no reasonable insult, says) homo sapien!
Ram (not having listened to anything, speaks with great satisfaction): Ah, you're dead. Finished. Like that.
Shyam: You're losing it too. I'm here. You've drunk a bit too much.
Ram: Drunk yourself. Can't you see that the game is up? Checkmate, old thing�
(Shyam sinks in melancholy disbelief)
Rohan(with the air of someone awakening from a deep slumber): I guess he has a point.
Ram: Of course I have a point. No way out. A checkmate is checkmate; mate.
Rohan (wave his hands off-handily): No, not that. About Gods putting their feet down. If Lord Rama has actually done all the things that he has, then he should be able to do something now.
Mohan: Eh? What has he done, you say?
Ram: A good many things, but he mainly killed Ravana so that the rest of the world could stay alive.
Mohan: So? I mean, I'd have done it with a machine gun.
Rohan: Exactly.
Shyam (shaken out of his trance): What say? You are going on his tracks, now are you?
Rohan: Tracks or no tracks, if Lord Rama can do something, so can we. If he doesn't do some thing, then its quite clear that he's asking us to do it; probably because he has other appointments that are keeping him busy.
Shyam: Eh? What's the point?
Rohan: The point? What's the point of living, you piece of flesh, who moves about, and is a burden to the earth? What's the point of your staying alive?
Ram (seriously): Well, it's a term of exile, isn't it? Seventy years of the forest of the world, and then back to the palace of eternity� so the point is that we have to quietly live through the punishment�
Rohan (now frustrated): I don't care a damn about your fancies about forests and palaces! If we're going to die anyway, today or tomorrow, or perhaps the day after that, or perhaps after a month or after a year or two years -
Shyam: uh - ahem, I guess we get your point - but what are you getting at?
Rohan (relaxing): I'm just convinced that Lord Rama isn't coming to give us a VIP visit. So, it's clear that we have to do something.
Mohan (interested): Like?
Ram (bored): Do something? For what? For whom?
Rohan (to Ram): It's thanks to people like us that the world seems more and more like something you'd want to run away from. If we try, then it'll have a different meaning. Just imagine, life won't seem like a long punishment after all.
Ram: Ain't worth the trouble. Lot less-
Mohan: hassle if you were to kill yourself - why don't you?
Ram: Ah, good idea. (pause) But, old idea. Quite obsolete. Tried many times, never got around doing it.
Rohan: Because you hoped that there will be better entrances to your palace. Because you thought there will be some less crude, less cowardly way to do it. And perhaps there is� I'm sure some day life will be so beautiful that people will forget that they're finishing their exile� and it'll actually look like a good deal to strike.
Mohan: Yeah, you'll just have to life a wonderful life till the doors of eternity open for you.
Shyam (considering): You're building castles in the clouds. Or in the air - whatever. (sigh) happiness has become such a stranger; my granny used to tell me so�
Mohan: We'll invite it� It won't deny�
Ram: Yeah.. I'll make the invitation cards..
Shyam: What do we have to do, precisely?
Rohan: We have to collect the masses, I mean the people. It's the people who are affected, and it's through them that we can have a mini-revolution or something..
Mohan: Yeah, we'll put all our feet down - we have got solid feet.
Ram: I still think you haven't got a right idea about the Gods.
Mohan (tired): To hell with you!
Ram: I'm already there.
Mohan: There where?
Ram: Hell.
Mohan: I think you need to get a better idea about revolutions. You won't have a chance to say that again when we're done with it�
Shyam: Yes, lets start getting optimistic - we have a weak government; people ready to do or die because they are going to die anyway�
Ram: I need to warn you, it's not as easy as it sounds�
Shyam (snapping at Ram): Of course it isn't� but we have forty years of time - in face, I have forty-two; I'm still twenty-eight�
Rohan: And that means forty years of hope� see, life has begun to have a different meaning already�
(Exit all characters)
**CURTAIN**