Papi Reddy: You dirty bitch. [He spats on her.]
Mallamma: Orey Papi Reddy. [She leaps up to Papi Reddy but drops down holding her chest in pain.]
Papi Reddy: Won’t it serve you right,you upstart. It does no good for the dalits to be angry. Realize that.
Mallamma: Orey luchchaa.[Getting up with some effort, she pounces upon Papi Reddy.]
[As Mallamma tries to throttle Papi Reddy, Anasuya tries to restrains her. In the end, Mallamma collapses as Papi Reddy Patel pushes her away.]
Rami Reddy: Looks like she’s dead, maybe, it’s a massive stroke followed by a mild one.
Papa Rao: Thank God, she didn’t have a sickle in her hand. Now I can imagine the peasant fury at Naxalbari.
Muthyal Rao: Papa Rao Patel, forget about Naxalbari, surely its one headache less in Rampur.
Shaukar Suryam: More so for Papi Reddy Patel.Oh, the way he’s rooting for Anasuya!Dora, don’t you see some daal me kaalain this?
Papi Reddy[Recovers his composure]: Why not you go and please yourself with that just widowed.
Muthyal Rao(Gets up): Let’s go.
Rami Reddy: Where, to Maisaiah’s widow.
[All laugh as they exit and Mallamma lay on the floor.]
[Enter Yellaiah with a bag in hand, and seeing Mallamma, he rushes to her.]
Yellaiah: Oh Malli, why did you desert me? Now how am I to live without you? [Lying over her body Yellaiah wails inconsolably.]
[Enter: Narsimma, Sarakka, Yadagiri, Maisamma and other villagers as the curtains are slowly down.]
Scene - 5
[Curtains up: Standing near the well of the downtrodden, Narsimma peeps into it.]
[Enter: Renuka on tiptoe, and blindfolds him.]
Narsimma: Don’t I smell my Renu from a mile. [He clasps her hand that blindfolds him.]
Renuka[Pushes a sweetmeat into his mouth]: See how my success in Matric tastes.
Narsimma: [Taking her into his arms.] But I’m for sweeter things from a sweet sixteen.
Renuka[Coyly]: Po baava. [Coquettishly] As if I’m holding you at the threshold. You can smell me from a mile but won’t move an inch into my life. What a buddhuyou arebaava.
Narsimma: Buddhu or badiya you would only know after we wed. But don’t you feel the pull of my love from the pulse of my heart?
Renuka: [Puts her ear to his chest.] Well, now if you don’t pull me into your life, my mother would push me out of it, and baava that would be the end of me. [She sits morosely on the wall and looks into the well.]