[Exit: Narsimma as Sarakka sees him off.]
Yellaiah[Falling on the floor]: Malli, don’t you see how our hopes have collapsed like a pack of cards? Oh, God only knows what would happen now?
[Curtains down.]
Scene – 12
[Curtains up: Madanna, Mallanna, Srisailam and Narsimma in a jungle hideout.]
Madanna to Narsimma: So, the bird has come home to roost after all.
Narsimma: Driven out of its hearth so to say.
Mallanna: How peddanna has been waiting for this day.
Madanna: Well, who doesn’t want to have a strategic brain like his?
Srisailam: Oh, how he used to turn the tables on your opponents at every turn.
Madanna: Wait and see what a difference he makes to the dalit cause. [Turns to Naesimma.] But how did you achieve your nirvana Narsimma?
Narsimma: Oh, how my sister was raped, and for what reason? It’s just because I protested their calling me Narsiga.
Madanna: I hope it’s not just your hurt that drove you here
Narsimma: Why, I’ve lost patience for a patient change.
Srisailam: Peddanna, to be fair to Narsimma, he too feels that it calls for a little arm-twisting besides some brainstorming. I know that temperamentally he’s all for revolutionary opposition, but ironically it was his circumstances that kept him away from the People’s War in the beginning and brought him into it in the end.
Narsimma: How well you’ve read me anna. Now, with the end of my dilemma, won’t they begin to feel the heat of my hurt?
Madanna: Mark my words Mallanna, wounded that he is, he’s going to revolutionize the revolutionary opposition itself.
Srisailam: Why its Ugra Narsimma the peddolluhave to contend with now.
Narsimma: Why have you forgiven the cops already?
Srisailam: How can I?
Narsimma to Madanna: Peddanna, my sister Sarakka too is itching to join us.
Mallanna: Why not, our dalam will have one more motivated member in it. (Turns to Madanna) What do you say peddanna? Won’t that herald women cadres?
Madanna: Why not take all the members into confidence. I don’t want them to carry the impression that it’s our joint enterprise. Moreover, as it involves women, you better ascertain their views.
[Exit: Mallanna.]
Srisailam: Don’t we need to be cautious in our move? What if it turns out to be the ideological dilution in a romantic setting? Well, I’m not speaking for myself as I swore to be single.
Narsimma: What if they are ideologically compatible, won’t they contribute in their own way. Instead of keeping them away altogether, why not we wed them to our struggle as our wives.