CHILDREN OF THE GREATER GOD

INDIA - CHILDREN OF THE GREATER GOD

CAST

MS PAREEVASH IRANI:                                         Producer, Change-World Films.

HARBHAJAN SINGH I.P.S.:                                     Inspector General of Police, Law & Order.

SWAMI PRACHARANANDA:                                 Hindu Godman.

MAULANA AMIR KASAB:                                      Muslim leader.

FATHER IGNATIUS PITCHUMANI:                       Christian spokesperson.

RAMESH BABURAO:                                               Retired Chief Engineer and member, The Rationalist Society of India.

Place

A state capital in India.

Time

The present. Early Evening.

THE SETTING:                                              A beautiful studio-office of Change-World Films, in art deco style, with large black leather sofas. There is a semi-circular table in one corner, and the walls have caricature portraits of film stars.

AS LIGHTS COME ON:                                The cast are seated comfortably on the sofas as RAMESH BABURAO walks in, a little uncertainly. PAREEVASH IRANI gets up to greet him.

PAREEVASH IRANI [gushing]: We were all waiting to meet our Hero, Mr. Baburao! . Can I call you Ramesh? What will you have, Ramesh? I have quite a collection of single malts, here.

RAMESH: No, thank you, I am quite happy with orange juice.

[PAREEVASH IRANI hands him a glass of orange juice]

RAMESH: You are very kind, Madam –

PAREEVASH IRANI: Call me Pervez, Ramesh, we are friends already. I have spiked it just a little - being a naughty girl. Ramesh! The whole nation is praising you for what you did! The Government has asked Change-World Films to make a documentary, so that others can try and be like you - and stop riots before they begin!

HARBHAJAN SINGH: That’s right, Mr. Baburao, we want a film we can use to bring harmony among Hindus and Muslims.

FATHER PITCHMANI: Indeed, my son, you have done God’s work.

SWAMI PRACHARANANDA: Ramesh has acted like a good Hindu.  Let all mankind be happy, has been the saying of all Hindus from the dawn of time.

MAULANA AMIR KASAB: Saying and doing are two different things.

PAREEVASH IRANI [enthusiastically]: Ramesh, everyone wants Change-World Films to feature you as a Saviour of the City!  

RAMESH [embarrassed]: I am an ordinary person, just a retired engineer.

PAREEVASH IRANI [interrupting]: And it’s ordinary people like you who do extraordinary things! That’s the story! You are the Change Agent who brought peace to rioting mobs!

HARBHAJAN SINGH: I don’t think you should be unduly modest, Mr. Baburao. I know for a fact the situation had got out of control – there was burning of buses, we resorted to firing in the air, but the mobs were spilling out into the narrow lanes – we want you to tell us how you stopped the trouble makers from spreading poison!

MAULANA AMIR KASAB: Inspector General Sahib Bahadur, indeed desecration of holy places is poison. Our people naturally responded.

PAREEVASH IRANI [soothingly]: The key fact is, Maulana Sahib, rioting was stopped, and lives were saved.

MAULANA AMIR KASAB: Yes, evil-minded people were stopped from desecrating holy places.

SWAMI PRACHARANANDA: What is evil? There is only confusion when Maya is invested with a false reality. There are no special holy places – the whole world is holy.

FATHER PITCHUMANI: I would say, only the Word is Holy.

PAREEVASH IRANI [bravely]: That’s why the film needs to be made now! We would like to start shooting today!

MAULANA AMIR KASAB [smiling broadly]: The world is violent even in its phraseology. Madam intends good, but she talks about shooting!

HARBHAJAN SINGH [warningly]: Better to shoot with a camera, Maulana Sahib, before it becomes necessary to use a gun!

SWAMI PRACHARANANDA: It is the violent thought that kills. As Bhagavan Krishna said to Arjuna, we must do our duty. You must do your duty as Inspector General to stop violent people from disturbing an ancient peaceful land.

MAULANA AMIR KASAB: Who is violent, Sir? Those evil-doers who desecrate? Or those who merely react in self protection?

FATHER PITCHUMANI [smiling]: Tell me, Swamiji, how can taking up arms be justified under any circumstances!

MAULANA AMIR KASAB: Are you talking about the Crusades?

SWAMI PRACHARANANDA [closing his eyes]: The problem arises when we fail to understand who is the Doer, doing what to whom?

PAREEVASH IRANI [turning decisively to RAMESH]: Let’s start, Ramesh. What made you intervene in the riots?

RAMESH: I am a long-standing member of the Rationalist Society of India. I consider all religious riots as irrational.

SWAMI PRACHARANANDA [opening his eyes and smiling]: We are a religious people,  Ramesh, that is the reality people cognize.

RAMESH [stoutly]: Well, I tell people what I believe is Real. In a democratic society people are free to believe what they like - so I am also free to tell them they are  dangerously irrational, when they indulge in a religious riot.

FATHER PITCHUMANI [worried]: I am afraid a film which preaches atheism will create more violence.

RAMESH [anxiously]: I am not saying I am an atheist – why should I make a statement about issues I have no knowledge of?

MAULANA AMIR KASAB [smiling]: I see your difficulty. One gets knowledge by  reading a book containing true knowledge.

SWAMI PRACHARANANDA: What you say, Ramesh, was elaborated in  Hinduism’s Lokayata philosophy in the sixth century BC.

HARBHAJAN SINGH [turning to RAMESH]: We are informed you stood between the two mobs, and somehow calmed them down. How did you do it?

RAMESH [scratching his head]: I don’t know. I was very angry at all that violent irrational behaviour. I just shouted at them – ‘Look at yourselves, you poor beggars, you have no jobs, you never went to school, you don’t even get drinking water everyday, what is the point of fighting about something you don’t even understand? Fight for something real, for jobs, housing, education for your children, for your rights.’ I got into a slanging match with the leaders on both sides, and somehow the steam went out of them and they just went home - the rational thing to do, in any case.

HARBHAJAN SINGH [sitting up, interested]: Mr. Baburao, are you a communist?

RAMESH: What? No, I am not.

HARBHAJAN SINGH: In this Rationalist Society of yours, are there others who think like you? Can you give me their names?

RAMESH: What? I think you should ask the Secretary. Why do you ask?

HARBHAJAN SINGH: You have an interesting way of describing society. I should like to know who your leader is.

RAMESH [surprised]: Leader? What are you talking about? We are Rationalists – not a political party!

HARBHAJAN SINGH [making a note]: Yes, quite. But you do have a viewpoint. Can you identify the ringleaders in the mobs who agreed with you?

RAMESH: I don’t know, maybe I can, if I see them.

HARBHAJAN SINGH: Do you do much public speaking, Mr. Baburao?

RAMESH: No, never. Why do you ask?

HARBHAJAN SINGH: Do you write articles? Can you give me a list of the journals you subscribe to?

RAMESH [slightly annoyed]: What has all that got to do with these stupid riots? No, I don’t write! Yes - letters to the editor. I complained about the stinking drains just last week.

HARBHAJAN SINGH: And what action did you suggest?

RAMESH [astonished]: Why, that they should be cleaned, what else?

PAREEVASH IRANI [with a forced laugh]: Ramesh! We want to talk about something more serious than drains.

RAMESH: Stinking clogged up drains are a serious subject. Mahatma Gandhi was fanatical about sanitation, you know!

HARBHAJAN SINGH [his face clearing]: You are a Gandhian, are you?

RAMESH: No! I am not a Gandhian - I am me. But I do think Gandhiji was a great man, and we can follow him on most issues – except for his strange ideas on sex – I beg your pardon, Madam.

PAREEVASH IRANI: That’s quite okay. Sex is kosher with me.

RAMESH: I don’t believe in kosher food and that sort of thing.

MAULANA AMIR KASAB: The Jews have much to answer for, and God will surely judge them – but knowledge about unclean foods is based on scientific facts.

FATHER PITCHUMANI: Perhaps, in olden unhygienic times. My people are mostly poor dalits, and pork is a nutritious, affordable meat.

SWAMI PRACHARANANDA: Does it not say in your holy book, Father, Man does not live by bread alone?

RAMESH [butting in]: But he cannot live without it!

HARBHAJAN SINGH [smiling]: Mr. Baburao, with your keen interest in social issues, I suggest that you work closely with the police in future.

PAREEVASH IRANI [to RAMESH, gamely persisting]: We can, perhaps, have an opening statement from you – what angered you about the riots?

MAULANA AMIR KASAB [firmly]: Madam, I would have a difficulty with that approach. A film about Peace cannot open with an attack on religion!

RAMESH [puzzled]: I am not attacking any religion – they are irrelevant!

FATHER PITCHUMANI [emphatically]: Religions are of the greatest relevance.

PAREEVASH IRANI: What do you say, Swamiji?

SWAMI PRACHARANANDA [after a pause]: Neither this nor that. Many dogmatic religious beliefs are irrelevant – why should we distinguish between one form of Maya and another?

RAMESH [somewhat belligerently]: Maya and all that is just a Brahmanical concept for exerting social control. [SWAMI PRACHARANADA closes his eyes in meditation]

PAREEVASH IRANI [despairing]: Well, how shall we go about it, then, people?

HARBHAJAN SINGH: It would be better if Mr. Baburao made no statement. Let him just show the camera what happened. That’s all.

RAMESH [mulishly]: Well, what happened was I told them religion was irrelevant, they should talk about jobs and food.

PAREEVASH IRANI: All right, then let’s talk about jobs and food! They are always hot topics.

HARBHAJAN SINGH: Ms Irani, not before elections, please! The government would not want to fund a criticism of their policies.

PAREEVASH IRANI [striking her fist into her palm]: We have to make a film!

[There is pregnant silence]

FATHER PITCHUMANI [at long last]: I think I see a way forward. You need an anchor – well, who better than the Inspector General of Police? And you have the three of us, the Swamiji, the Maulana, and myself, to inform the film with the reactions of our communities.

PAREEVASH IRANI [despairingly]: Yes, true, Father, but the film is about Ramesh, what he did to stop the riots, that’s the whole point of the film!

FATHER PITCHUMANI [warming to the task]: No problem, we will have him in – what we won’t have are statements against religion.

PAREEVASH IRANI [more despairing]: But if he speaks, that’s what he will say!

FATHER PITCHUMANI: So, he doesn’t speak. You put the footage of the riots into a cogent story.

PAREEVASH IRANI: Yes, all that is OK, but what about Ramesh?

SWAMI PRACHARANANDA: Picture him as he is. Standing with his eyes closed in deep meditation.

FATHER PITCHUMANI: That’s a very good suggestion. Picture him standing in meditation, while I conduct Mass.

MAULANA AMIR KASAB [nodding sagely]: This is good. I very much want Mr. Ramesh in the same frame as Friday Prayers.

RAMESH: But I do not pray!

HARBHAJAN SINGH [firmly]: Who is asking you to? You just stand still, eyes closed, that’s all.

RAMESH: But damn it, I don’t meditate!

PAREEVASH IRANI [softly]: You will be paid international rates during the period of the shooting, Ramesh, that’s serious money.

RAMESH [uncomfortably]: I don’t like being bought.

FATHER PITCHUMANI [leaning over to touch RAMESH]: Nobody is buying you, Sir, it is just a business deal. Surely as a Rationalist, you know that money is Real?

RAMESH [reluctantly]: Yes, I can certainly use cash – at least to pay my debts. Pensions haven’t risen at all for us professionals.

PAREEVASH IRANI: See! Everything is working out. Thank you, Father, for finding a way out.

HARBHAJAN SINGH [in a loud jocular stage whisper]: Trust a Jesuit to do so!

FATHER PITCHUMANI: Before we go into dinner, can we say a little benediction for the peace of the world?

[Everyone nods in agreement, all stand up, and a cacophony of prayers in Sanskrit, Arabic, and Latin is heard, as LIGHTS DIM OUT]

END of PLAY