Onto The Stage Slighted Souls And Other Stage Plays

A compendium of the author’s Indian stage and
radio plays:"Slighted Souls" is a poignant love story set in rural
Telangana, beset with feudal exploitation of the downtrodden dalits. Besides forcing
the dalits to toil in the fields as bonded labor without
impunity, the land owning doras had no qualms in reducing the
womenfolk of this ilk as sex slaves in the gadis, which results in an armed rebellion engulfing two young lovers."Men at work on Women at work" is a tragic-comic episode
depicting the fallout of sexual harassment at the workplace in the Indian urban
setting with its traditional cultural underpinnings."Castle of Despair", built on the slippery ground of
man's innate urge for one-upmanship, portrays its facade of falsity on the
grand stage of human tragedy.







The radio play, "Love on Hold", lends voice to the felt
anxieties of a man and a woman as their old flame gets rekindled and the
dilemmas of possession faced by the couple in a conservative cultural
background.Book excerpt from Slighted souls - A political stage play' for a feel of its stage:Scene – 1Voice
Over: Under the British
Raj in India,
the self-indulging Nizams of Hyderabad abdicated the administration of their
vast principality to doralu, the
village heads,  letting them turn the areas under their domain
into their personal fiefdoms. While the successive Nizams were obsessed with
building palaces and acquiring jewelry, the village heads succeeded in ushering
in an oppressive era of tyrannical order. Acting as loose cannon from their
palatial houses called gadis, the doralu succeeded in foisting an inimical
feudal order upon the downtrodden dalits.
Besides making these dalits toil for
them as cheap labor without impunity, the doralu
had no qualms in making vassals out of the hapless women folk. What with the
police patels and the revenue patwaris in nexus with the landed gentry
and the moneyed shaukars making a
common cause with the doralu in their
unabated exploitation, their sub-human condition ensured that the dalits were distressed economically, degraded socially and debased
morally.   Ironically, lending the
privileged few the muscle power to perpetrate the inimical social order were
their henchmen from the other backward classes. Moreover, given the British
political pragmatism of an indifference to the Indian caste conundrum the
downtrodden dalits had nowhere to run
for cover. Though the merger of their province with
the Union of India brought the curtains down on the Nizams’ two-hundred year
misrule, the exploitation of the rural dalits
by the dora-patel-patwari nexus
continued unabated. And that led to the formation of 'communes' as part of a
peasant movement in July 1948 under the Telangana
Struggle that didn’t take off any way.
On the other hand as the seeds of egalitarianism began to take roots in the
urban Indian soil, in time, these “slighted souls” too began to envision the
dawn of an equitable era for them. However, the nascent upward mobility of the
downtrodden was at odds with the vested interests of the feudal order, and to
nip the dalit moral assertiveness in
the bud, the ‘axis of evil’ saw to it that such were brutalized to make an
example of them.“Slighted Souls” scripts the life of the
downtrodden of Rampur
nearly a decade after the famous but failed peasant struggle of Telangana.
Making cohorts with Muthyal Rao the dora
in oppressing its dalits are Papa Rao
the Police Patel, Rami Reddy the Patwari, Papi Reddy the landlord and
Shaukar Suryam the moneylender. Beginning with the life and times of Yellaiah
and his wife Mallamma this play unfolds the urge of the deprived to unyoke
themselves, and the desperation of the privileged to rein in them.[Curtains up: Mallamma sits in front of
her thatched hut in the dalit mohalla
weaving a bamboo basket. Enter: Yellaiah, and seeing him, she goes into the hut
to fetch some water for him, and he takes over the work.]Mallamma [Back with a glass of water]: Why make
a mess of it maava.Yellaiah [Taking over the glass]: Take it I’m
giving them their due.Mallamma: I wonder how they’re harming you.Yellaiah [Having empted the glass]: Aren’t they
harsh on my darling’s delicate hands? Mallamma [Taking back the glass]: I’m glad
you’re still fond of your old woman.Yellaiah: Who said you’re old dear. I’m ever
scared that some dora or a patel might grab my Malli.Mallamma
[Taking the bamboo
work]: You know it would never be the case.Yellaiah: Well but still.Mallamma:
Leave alone the patels and the patwaris, would the dora ever forget that incident in a hurry? Besides, I’m behind the
bamboo curtain, am I not? Yellaiah: Well who can forget that potential
tragedy turned farce? [He laughs heartily]. But still it hurts to let you toil
day and night.Mallamma: So be it, till our Narsimma becomes a
big officer. Till then, the fact that you care keeps it going. Yellaiah: Where is Sarakka?Mallamma: Wonder why she hasn’t turned up yet.Yellaiah
[Making a move to get up]:
Why not I better check up at her school. Mallamma
[Holding him back]:
Isn’t it enough that you’ve been toiling like a mule all day long. Yellaiah: Why their lot is any day better dear.
They are well-fed by peddollu and
attended by doctors. See, they’ve doctors to look after them but we’ve to put
with the quacks. I hear even their lives are insured these days.Mallamma: Well, mules have a price tag on them,
but what about us. Don’t dalits come
cheaper by the dozen?[Enter: Maisaiah on his way in a hurry.]Yellaiah: 
O Maisaiah, where are you running to now?Maisaiah: Running around on Shaukar’s errands,
oh, how I’ve forgot about memsaab.  She said she has some work for me before he
returned from Warangal.[Exit: Maisaiah.]Yellaiah: Why, their women too boss over our
men, don’t they? How I wish our Narsimma won’t have to put up with all
that. Mallamma: Why should he as Pantulayya says he’s bright. He feels the same way about our
Sarakka, and Renuka.  But I think Renuka
is better than both.Yellaiah: Don’t I know you’re always partial
towards your brother’s daughter.Mallamma: It’s as if I’m a stepmother to your
kids. Yellaiah: Why get hurt dear, I was just joking.
But still our kids are hot heads while she carries a clear head? If not for
you, wouldn’t they have become rebels by now?Mallamma: Whatever, once he sets his mind;
Narsimma is not the one to waver. And Sarakka too is developing the same
traits, isn’t she?Yellaiah: Well, how you’ve been drumming him not
to get distracted from his studies.Mallamma: Why not? You know how we’re undone by
being unpad. I want all three of them
to be well educated. I’ve been hoping that an educated Renuka makes an ideal
wife for our Narsimma. But sadly vadina
seems to have developed second thoughts about giving her to him.Yellaiah: Don’t I see Anasuya is rooting for
Saailu, her good for nothing brother. Well, we can only hope that your brother
Yadagiri puts his foot down for once.Mallamma: But can he do that? Any way, there is
still a long way to go. Let’s see what the future has in store for them.Yellaiah: What a wretched life ours is Malli? We
don’t even have a say in our own affairs. It’s Papi Reddy Patel who’s behind all this. And don’t I see his game plan?   Mallamma: Don’t they say woman is woman’s enemy.
Let’s hope Renuka’s fate prevails over vadina’s
whims.Yellaiah: How I wish that happens.Mallamma: I’m quite hopeful, more so as times
are changing.Yellaiah: Wish I’ve your strength of belief
Malli.Mallamma: Maava,
if you want change, you’ve got to dream about it. Yellaiah: How’re we to dream Malli, when life
itself is a nightmare? Oh, how the peddollu
have reduced us.[Enter Sarakka with a slate and a few
school books, and collapses in front of them.]Yellaiah: Malli quick, fetch some water for
Sarakka.[Even as Mallamma brings in some water,
Yellaiah takes Sarakka in his lap. After the mother sprinkles some water on
her, the girl gets up and greedily drinks from the tumbler.]Mallamma: What happened to you my child?Sarakka: I felt thirsty on the way amma. But they didn’t allow me to drink
from their well.Yellaiah: They refuse water to a thirsty child!
Oh, how lowly are these peddollu.Mallamma: Well, their well is full of frogs, yet
they think it gets polluted if we drink from it. What an irony?Yellaiah: Why, being a frog in the well is
better than the bane of being a dalit.  Mallamma: Oh, why did God make it so inhuman for
us?Yellaiah: And see their gall; they say its God’s
own will. Isn’t it like rubbing salt on our wounds?Mallamma: He must be a cruel God to say that.
But did He say that?Sarakka: We’re dearer to God, that’s why
Gandhiji said we’re harijan. We’ve
that lesson in our class.Yellaiah: If only Gandhiji lived long enough to
make it true for us.Sarakka: Maastaaru
says God helps only those who help themselves.Mallamma: Who knows another mahatma might be waiting in the wings to pick up the threads?Yellaiah: Having made us anguthachaps all along, mercifully, they’re letting our children
study these days.Mallamma: Well, grudgingly. Whatever, it’s going
to be the turning point for us.[Enter a tired Narsimma with his
schoolbag] Yellaiah: How our poor Narsimma has to walk all
those miles. If only we’ve a high school here.Mallamma: Why’re you so dull my boy? Narsimma: I couldn’t go to school amma.Yellaiah: Why what’s the matter?Narsimma: I was crossing the gadi and the dorasani held me. As their Maali
fell ill, she made me work all day in the garden.Mallamma: Why, when it’s julum on us, the dorasanlu score
no less.Narsimma: And all the while she was yelling,
Narsiga, Narsiga, Narsiga. It’s as if she can’t get my name right.Yellaiah: Well, they think we’re not entitled to
our name even.Mallamma
to Narsimma: Bear all
that for now my boy. Once you’re a B.A., all will call you Narsimma. Yellaiah
to Mallamma: I’ll sell
my shirt to make him a B.A., and it’s my word to you. [There is a commotion outside, and
Sarakka exits.] Sarakka
[Reenters]: Maisaiah mama is being carried on a cart. Shaukar Saab is also there. Yellaiah: Let me find out what’s the
matter. Mallamma:  I’ll also come. Lachamma might need me.[Exit: Yellaiah and Mallamma leaving
Narsimma and Sarakka. Curtains down.]