CAST: A married couple; man in 50s, woman in 40s
SETTING: Present day urban
SCENE: Two straight-back chairs in the foreground of an empty stage set at least four feet apart.
CURTAIN OPENS
(A woman carrying a hand bag enters from the left wings. Walks in smartly, then pauses midway to the chairs, opens her bag to take out a small mirror, checks her hair and lipstick, puts the mirror back snaps shut the bag. Takes a deep breath, composes her face and walks up to the front of the stage at some distance from the chairs behind her.)
Woman: (extending her hand limply) Uhh…hello. I…I’m Sarita…Sarita Joshi. I called you for the appointment. Do you remember, uhh…doctor? (shakes her hand up and down as if part of a handshake) Oh! You remember? (relief in voice and on face) yes…yes today is 24th, Tuesday at…at 10:30, I think you said? (pauses, knits her brows) Oh! 10, was it? Sorry, doctor I must have misunderstood. Okay, okay, where do I sit? (looks behind her at both chairs and chooses the right chair. Sits on the edge, folding and crossing her legs at the ankle) My husband? He must be on his way…I told him this morning before he left for office. (Aside) Of course he just ignores everything I say. I hope he comes…or else what will the doctor think….(looking ahead says apologetically) He is a little late (then changes her tone to complaining) This is the problem…he is always late for anything that matters to me…always l…a…t…e (voice fades away as her eyes follow the man who enters from the right wings)
(A man in a smart business suit strolls in, hands in pocket, looks left and right. Walks a few steps beyond the chair on the left and then to the front of the stage. The woman’s head turns following him silently)
Man: (extends a hand and shakes it) Hi Doc! Atul Joshi, here. Nice clinic you have. Apparently, my wife set up some appointment…for counseling our marital status. I have no idea why. No amount of counseling can change facts, can they? Waste of time in my opinion …yours and mine. But one has to go by wife’s wish…after all how many storms can one weather? I only hope it will be a quick fix. I have taken an hour off from my office for this and I have an important client meeting beginning in…in (looks at his watch) one and half hour. So…
Woman(spitting out the words): Client meeting! My foot! He is probably meeting that Urmila to cozy up to her…Urmi(sings the name sarcastically). He calls her. (makes a disdainful sound)
(Man puts his hands on his hips and turns to give her silent exasperated look. Woman turns her face away. He shrugs and looks forward again)
Man: Sit? Alright. (looks around) Where? (points to the vacant chair) There? But I thought you guys had some couch or something…Oh! Not you? You are a counselor and it’s the psychiatrists who have couches…well! Good for them to treat patients in different positions…you know (gives a lecherous laugh and then seeing the woman glaring at him, coughs behind his hand) Okay, Okay, I’m sorry…not the place…not the time (goes to the chair and sits down murmuring) still a couch would have been nice.
(For 5 seconds both sit in their chairs and stare ahead)
Man: How long have we been married? Ummm…(looks as if he is counting) two years. NO. Thirty two years. Did you hear two…no, no THIRTY TWO…I won’t forget that number. The last time I heard it (shakes his head) it was through a mountain of vanilla cake icing dumped on my head. Why? Well I forgot it was our anniversary but finally I had remembered…I certainly remembered when I returned home. Especially when the guests wished me but…but by then WHAM! The cake hit my face and I was covered in icing.
Woman (empahatically): Thirty THREE years! (aside) even our first anniversary…He forgot. He forgets everything. While going to office in the morning, we would decide to go for a movie in the evening. I would be all dressed up and waiting and guess what? Our man would be playing cards with friends at the club till late night. He FORGOT.
Man: (ignoring her. Gets up and takes a few steps forward. Pointing with his finger) Doc, have you ever tasted vanilla icing? Well, its my favourite flavour. But when you are gagging on it and your nose is clogged with creamy vanilla, you will hate it. Never ever had vanilla flavour after that day.
Woman: (spitefully) Good! Very good. At least I made a dent in his likes and dislikes. (looking forward) What made me so angry? You see, Atul always forgets our anniversary. As if our marriage is the worst mistake of his life.(sniffs and looks for a tissue in her bag. Takes it out and dabs her eyes)
Man: Hell! When did I say that? (Aside) Nooo…marriage is not a mistake. It is a disaster!
Woman(ignoring the man and continuing): On our thirty second anniversary, I decided to throw a surprise party.
Man: Oh I was certainly thrown by it. It was a total surprise for me.
Woman: I rushed about the whole day…cleaning, dusting, swabbing…
Man: Her favourite hobby… Nothing gives her greater joy. Certainly not I. You know…(walking to one side of stage and looking into the distance) there have been times when I wished she would simply throw away the duster and sit by me. I would talk and she would listen to me. I would tell her my wishes, my ideas, my dreams. She would listen. Then add her dreams to mine.
Woman(continuing) : …cooked all his favourite dishes…invited his friends…not mine…his.
Man: Oh I didn’t know that…my friends not hers…okay…
Woman: And waited for him to wish me…but he didn’t remember…
Man: Why the silent treatment? What’s the harm in reminding me it was our anniversary? A man may forget… so many things on his mind…there was an important meeting … Hey! Isn’t she supposed to wish me too? (she glares at him) Alright! That’s my duty not Sarita’s…Got it. GOT IT!
Woman: I consoled myself thinking that the silly vamp in his office, his secy, Urmila would wish him in office and he would remember. At least, for once she would of some use instead of only swinging her fanny in front of him.
Man: Oh God! And I never went to office that day. Spent it at the client’s place clinching the deal…I don’t know why she twists the knife into Urmi…she is just a nice kid…an efficient one, too. Never forgets to remind me of meetings, the boss’ birthday …good kid…wish I had a wife like that (sighs)
Woman (screeching) See? See? Now he wants Urmila to be his wife!
Man (shuts his mouth with both hands and shakes his head silently)
Woman (throwing him a disgusted look, continues): I kept waiting… and ordered his favourite vanilla and cherry cake…
Man: Oh yes, I love vanilla cakes and I appreciate her getting it for me but I would have loved it more if we had spent a quiet evening together. How I wish she had held my hand and asked me, ‘How did your day go?’
Woman: This is so just like Atul. All that I do for him, he can’t never see that. If don’t do something, he will remember it all his life. (dabbing her eyes) Now you know what I have had to suffer in this marriage. Actually, I used to ask him about his day when we were newly married. Then I realized that he never ever asked me how my day had gone. So I stopped asking him.
(She is quiet and the man just spreads his arms and shrugs.)
Woman (continues): That evening all the guests arrived. Everyone was waiting for Atul. The doorbell rang and I ran to open the door. The guests shouted loudly, ‘Happy Anniversary!’ The idiot stood there with a silly grin. Then he turned to me and said, ‘Whose anniversary, darling?’ (she paused. The man gulps and looks away) Well, I just saw red. I picked up the huge cake and smashed it on his face and said, ‘Our anniversary, my dear. You married me thirty-two years ago.’ After that, I have never celebrated our anniversary.
Man: Oh God! What a woman! Made a scene right in front of my friends! Couldn’t she take me aside and whisper the truth to me? (disgustedly) Surprise party! My fools party! Now my friends tell this tale at every stag party. Is that what a wife is for? To make you into a joke? I never even dreamt my wife would humiliate me so much. Thirty two…no thirty three years married to her. I should get a medal for it.
Woman: Right! I suffer. He gets the medal.
Man: I didn’t know being married to me was such a pain to her.
Woman: He is simply not sensitive to my feelings. I would slog all day to cook biriyani the way his mother did because he had never tasted anything like it since he left home. I would eagerly wait for him to taste it and go into raptures. But no… He would gobble it up by spoonfuls watching cricket on the TV and not once would he say how it was or ask how I managed to cook it the way his mother did.
Man: Because it wasn’t cooked the way Ma cooked biriyani anyway.
Woman: Did you hear that? He has no shame…no shame (collapsing into tears)
Man (paces agitated): Look Doc, I have never stopped her from doing anything she has wanted to. Why should I? She has all the rights to all kinds of freedom. I don’t believe in restrictions. I know she works hard to make me physically comfortable and I am grateful for it. But I wish she would realize I have emotional needs too. To me marriage means a companion who understands me and who stands by me in all circumstances.
Woman: Emotional needs? What does he know of emotional needs? Thirty three years! I have never seen him understanding my emotions. He thinks a comfortable home, freedom to go anywhere, money to spend is enough to make me happy. What about making me feeling loved, wanted, cherished?
Man: Oh no! She’s on her pet crib now. What? (He turns to face ahead) What did you say, Doc? That I turn towards her? Why? Just do it? Okay.(He turns to face the woman)
Woman: No. Why? Why should I face him? Why? It’s part of the counseling? Alright.(She wipes her face and turns to the man) Now what?
Man and Woman (loudly) Why?
Woman: Are you sure? You…you mean just telling him everything I have told you will really make a difference?
Man: Okay, Doc. I will tell her all that I have been telling you. Will it matter? Okay,(shrugs) No harm. Let’s see.
(Love song with a waltz beat begins to play softly in the background. Both silently move their lips and gesticulate with their hands as if speaking to each other. While speaking they come closer and closer, until they embrace. Music becomes louder. They begin to waltz to the music across the stage and finally waltz off the stage. Curtains close.)
All Rights Reserved. @Sutapa Basu 2020
