PRATAP: Meanwhile let me clear the air. I felt sorry for you when I heard about your tragedy
VIMALA: (OFF) Hypocrite.
PRATAP: I took the first available flight.
VIMALA: I’m glad you care.
PRATAP: I wish I were there right then.
VIMALA: Maybe, it would have helped (PAUSE) or might not have. Now I’ve come to see it more as a tragedy of our country.
PRATAP: When Sekhar told me about it, I too thought so. I’m ashamed for what the world thinks of us Indians.
VIMALA: Why feel apologetic at all. Why, was it any worse than the senseless outrages in the U.S campuses? Bhadru’s killers had an ill-motive at least. But there, don’t sick-minds routinely gun down the unwary. What a shame, the so-called gun culture.
PRATAP: Leave alone the U.S., tell me what went wrong here.
VIMALA: Blame the businessman, present company excluded.
SEKHAR: I’ve my share of sins and there is no shying away from that.
PRATAP: But give the devil where it is due. But for their enterprise India wouldn’t have been what it is economically.
VIMALA: It’s like not seeing the wood for the trees. It is they who corrupted our society and weakened its moral fabric.
SEKHAR: What do you mean by that Vimala? It’s the so-called government servants who started it all. Will they ever touch a file without greasing their palms? If I’m right, Nehru said that bribes act like lubricants in the smooth running of the government machinery. And what’s his daughter’s take on corruption? Didn’t Indira Gandhi say it was a global phenomenon? Mind you, both of them together ruled the country for the best part after independence, what do you say about it?
VIMALA: Well, the need to bribe the black sheep is not same as corrupting the entire flock. That’s what the business community did over the years. Who hasn’t heard of their bribe talk, khushi se dete haiorsabhi lete haiand such? Bhadru used to say only ten percent officials were corrupt in the seventies. I need not tell you less than ten percent could be honest now.
PRATAP: What do you say Sekhar?
SEKHAR: In hind sight, I think she is right.
VIMALA: Seems we’ve lost the foresight forever.
PRATAP: What about having some garam chai to rev up a little.
VIMALA: Why not, we’ve a dhabha nearby.
(PAUSE)
SFX – Indicative of the car being parked near an open air eatery and the passengers alighting from the same.
SCENE - 6
EXT - Pratap, Sekhar and Vimala take their chairs at a table in the open