Ramya: What did you say! me carrying-on behind your back?
Rajiv: Is it news to you?
Ramya: So, our life has come to this pass.
Rajiv: Because I was naïve to your ways with that Deva fellow.
Ramya: I knew you are a big dreamer and a bad loser but never could I imagine you are such a nasty character. Perhaps I should have guessed. Oh! how I wasted my life with you.
Rajiv: Why waste more of it?
Ramya: Maybe you are right for once.
Rajiv: Having been wronged for long that is.
[Exit: Ramya in a huff.]
Rajiv: She didn’t look guilty, did she? But can she deny that she has a soft spot for Deva? Oh how he has become the bane of my life by first charming my wife and then hijacking my agenda. What if in her fit of anger she turns to Rau for legal counsel. Won’t that double the ridicule? What an accursed fate that had brought him into my life! Don’t I owe it to me to avenge myself upon him?
[Enter: Divya seeking Ramya.]
Divya [to Rajiv]: Hi.
Rajiv: Hi.
[Divya goes backstage.]
[Rajiv hails for Rangaiah.]
[Enter: Rangaiah as Divya returns.]
Divya: Where is Ramya?
Rajiv: Wait, I’ll tell you. [Turns to Rangaiah] Go and fetch her.
Rangaiah: Babu she didn’t tell me where she was going.
Rajiv: Why, she must be with one of the women in the colony. [Turns to Divya] Can’t you make a guess?
[Rangaiah lingers on at the exit.]
Divya: Why spoil her party; I’ll come later.
Rajiv: But I want to detain you for a while. [Turns to Rangaiah] What’s holding you up?
[Exit: Rangaiah.]
Divya: What’s the matter?
Rajiv: You first tell me what you thought about me the other day.
Divya: Why, you were so nasty with Deva, more so with Ramya.
Rajiv: Did you ever think why I behaved the way I behaved.
Divya: Why, I thought you couldn’t digest the prospect of Deva’s progress.
Rajiv: So you got it all wrong and I can’t fault you for that.
Divya: What else then?
Rajiv: It was only a trigger to vent my ire at both of them.
Divya: Why any ill-feeling at all!
Rajiv: Do you expect me to rejoice for being cuckolded.
Divya: What nonsense?
Rajiv: Right now they would be in each others’ arms, I don’t know where.
[Divya remains mum.]
Rajiv: Won’t that make some sense at least for them?
Divya: Do you want me to swallow that rubbish?