(PAUSE)
PRATAP: Prati, any idea of going to the U.S for higher studies?
PRATI: No uncle. My Hippocratic Oath is some time away. But mummy had already sworn me into Indian medical service.
PRATAP: Nice but not easy, your mother is.
VIMALA: Sekhar, why didn’t you tell me that Pratap runs an immigration agency in the U.S? I would have let a ‘No-entry’ board greet him.
SFX – Indicative of Vimala serving them coffee.
PRATAP: Jokes apart, with the right incentive, I’m a candidate for remigration.
SEKHAR: Who won’t welcome you with open arms?
PRATAP: Don’t be too sure my boy.
VIMALA: I’m ready.
SEKHAR: To welcome or to leave.
VIMALA: Both.
PRATAP: Let me handle your luggage.
VIMALA: Why bother?
PRATAP: If age didn’t wither you chivalry didn’t desert me.
SEKHAR: Vimala, oh, the same old Pratap for you.
VIMALA: What to do, what can’t be cured should be endured.
PRATAP: Am I supposed to take it as a compliment?
PRATI: Thank you Pratap uncle, I’ve never seen mummy so lively.
PRATAP: Maybe, old-timers meet ushers in new times.
SFX – Indicative sounds of opening of the compound gate, the car boot and closing the same, the opening of the back door to facilitate Vimala’s entry and closing it thereafter. Opening of the car front doors by Pratap and Sekhar and closing the same and the sound of ignition.
VIMALA: Prati dear, take care.
PRATI: Wish you all a happy journey, bye.
SEKHAR and PRATAP: Bye Prati.
SFX – Indicative of the car speeding away.
SCENE - 5
EXT – Journey by car with the hustle and bustle of the morning life in Hyderabad.
PRATAP: Think about school times, you think of teachers’ nicknames. Birada, Pakodi, kothhimeeri katta.
VIMALA: What about the nicknames you had for girls?
PRATAP: I don’t remember any but..
VIMALA: Halwa.
PRATAP: Are you still fond of it?
VIMALA: I’ve stopped having it.
PRATAP: But why?
VIMALA: Who was to tease me?
(PAUSE)
SEKHAR: Pratap, Rama Rao maastaruis keen on seeing you.
PRATAP: I don’t know why, he thought I would come well in life.
SEKHAR: And so it is.
PRATAP: Yes and no.
VIMALA: You’ve always been like that, ‘yes and no’. Am I right?
PRATAP: Yes and no, and I can’t I fault you for thinking so.
SEKHAR: Pratap, why talk in circles.
PRATAP: Because I can’t be forthright.
SEKHAR: What’s the restraint?
PRATAP: It’s my constraint.
SEKHAR: What is it?
PRATAP: That I can’t tell you without being forthright.
SEKHAR: Why back to square one via your nonsensical route.