The weight loss hour 2019 EDIT

The weight loss hour @ Arjun Raina Hello and welcome. I am an only lonely chorus. I apologize. As you can see. I am alone. There is no one else with me. I tried to get others. But in today’s times it is difficult to get people together. I am a chorus of one. However, armed with this laptop of this screen and this curtain, mine. I am a chorus of millions. I represent this great nation called India and its people. Here, now in the year 2007. I reveal to you its people and their lives. Here in Delhi I take you to Sunita Sharma’s weight loss clinic. Sunita Sharma is recorded in the Limca book of world records for the maximum weight loss in the shortest length of time. Her formula for personal success is now an entire business strategy known as the SS way to SS that is Sunita Sharma’s way to Stay Slim. She uses the latest techniques of electronic controlled weight reduction as well as personalized massage service and body care. Here in Sunita Sharma’s weight loss clinic we will meet Kalapana Katkar. Now a slim woman of 52 kgs she has lost 20 kgs over the past year but still wants to lose more weight. She wants to lose more weight not because she is wanting to, make her body look even more beautiful but because she wants to be fighting fit. That is right. Kalpana’s life is going to change very radically very soon and for once she fighting to stay in control. From Sunita Sharma’s weight loss clinic we will move to the wonderful state of Bengal where Samta Ganguli the firebrand politician is on a fast protesting the forced acquisition of a 1000 acres of fine agricultural land for a car manufacturing project. She has been on a fast for 23 days and her condition is fast deteriorating making life extremely difficult for the Marxist Chief Minister Mahavir Acharya who is wracking his brains to try and come up with an innovative solution to the political problem. We are then back to the capital city of Delhi where a Supreme Court controlled demolition drive is breaking down all illegally constructed structures and buildings. Shops are being sealed and lakhs of traders are losing their business. Simultaneously old structures and buildings that are impeding the path to progress are also to be demolished and their inhabitants relocated. One such building is the Dargah of a 17th century Sufi saint Sarmad right next to the Jama Masjid. For those unfamiliar a Dargah is a shrine where the grave of a Muslim saint is located. So dear janta, great people of this great country, let us waste no further time and get the show moving. [The chorus projects from his laptop onto a curtain. Behind the curtain is the weight loss room.] Zahira, the slim and beautiful weight loss assistant enters and sits on a stool kept in front of the curtain watching a TV program that the chorus is projecting. Signature tune of CNN IBN An attractive TV anchor is smiling over cheesily and presenting the days story Welcome to the days top story…. You thought the Nithari Killings could not get more morbid. Well they have.   Organ trade twist to Noida horror Morbid details are emerging from the house of horrors in the Nithari village in Noida’s Sector 31. Four days after UP Police unearthed grisly details of young children being kidnapped, sexually assaulted and butchered to death in businessman Moninder Singh Pandher’s D-5 bungalow, police are now exploring a possible organ trade angle. Officials, who have recovered skeletal remains of at least 17 of the nearly 31 children so far, say that the torsos of most of the bodies are missing, lending credence to the organ trade theory, which was earlier, ruled out. Moving on to the next headline of the day…It is confirmed that Abhishek and Aishwarya are getting married…. they were both seen …with the Bachchan family…at the Sankat Lochan temple in Benares Kalpana presses the bell …a loud ring is heard… Zahira, draws the curtain and enters the room In the weight loss room There is a bed A massage table An electronic tapping machine TV Cupboard, table etc Kalpana Katkar lies on a bed wired up and with minimum clothing. She has been watching the TV, which shows the same program the chorus projects on the curtain. There is however no sound to the weight loss room TV. Kalpana: Zahira…. this one…. here …its not working at all…. no buzz no feeling…. can you please do something? Kuch karo…. Zahira moves to the machine and goes about readjusting the vibrating pads attached to Kalpana’s body, adjusting the control of the flow of the electric vibration. She checks very carefully with Kalpana that each pad is reactivated…Kalpana helps her fix the right level…. Kalpana: Han…Now its there…just a little more…without giving me a shock…. ab ismey bhi aa raha hai…How old is this machine? half the time is taken up adjusting levels….that is why I am losing weight so slowly now…the first 15 kilos took just 4 months…then the next 10 another four and now these last five have already taken me 5 months…When I told Sunita Sharma about it she spun some weight loss gyan at me….that first the fat is loose so weight loss is easier…but then the muscle has to lose water…or some rubbish like that, so it takes longer…But the truth is the machine has been here since I started over a year ago…a year is a long time these days…aajkal toh saal main pati basi ho jata hai….machine toh kya…tell Sunita Sharma she is making all this money she needs o reinvest it in her business…She herself is putting on so much weight….The Limca book of records ki champion weight looser is now looking like a ‘Before’ model…I don’t want that to happen to me….. Zahira (laughing) That won’t happen…you have slimmed down a lot…you look so attractive now…its just that you’ve decided to lose more weight…for me your figure is perfect now…. acha…if you need anything else just ring the bell…. abhi ten minutes are left… Kalpana: Today…. what’s after this? Zahira: Today Sunita madam has for you 20 minutes of electronic tapping, then massage, then 20 minutes of Tummy tuck… Saying this she tries to change the channel pointing it toward the curtain…the remote is not working… Areey remote’s not working, yeh kaam nahin kar raha hai…nayee battery lagani padeygi…Ill just change the batteries …put in new ones. She leaves the room exiting downstage left leaving the curtain drawn. Kalpanas phone starts ringing…she looks at the number calling…says a loud ‘fuck’ under her breath. She takes the call. Kalpana: What the fuck do you want? I’ve told you not to call me in my sessions…. you can’t hold your fucking tongue like you can’t hold your fucking semen. Who the hell are you to tell me to mind my tongue and who the fuck are you to tell me to stop losing weight, it is my body and my fat, and I will get rid of it and do whatever I want with it. When I was fat you liked it because then I would just sit at home and cook meals from you…well you screwed it all up for yourself…. that fat slob who you could walk all over is now past tense …this is me now…and if the new me is too threatening then I am through with you…I should have walked out the day I found out…but I stayed on because of your mother…she has only me in the house...but the more I have found out about what you’ve been up to the more it makes me sick…that I have spent so much time …with such a …..Bloody asshole. She switches off the phone. She begins to cry suddenly overwhelmed by her anger. Zahira comes in just then. Zahira: What happened…. your husband on the phone again? I am sorry I heard you…you did just right…Men they think they still own us…our bodies…give them half a chance and they even want to control our weight…. my husband too tried that…encouraged me to grow fat so I’d just stay at home and cook for him…like his mother has done for him his whole life …but I stayed slim…even after two children…he doesn’t even know the number of men who want me…who desire me, but I am tired of them all…I like to be with women now...marey sarey mardlog meri bala sey…. the next time your husband calls just give the phone to me…aisi galiyan doongi…uska raang udh jayeega…at this time in clinic there is no one else…I’ll just let him have it… Kalpana starts laughing… Kalpana: Bilkul sahi kaha …The time has come to let them really have it…marey saaley sab ke sab…. achcha give me the remote…I have to watch these TV anchors…kal mera audition hai CNN IBN mai…and I am feeling very under confident…but I have decided…I am going to get this job and start a new life …I need to now live for myself [she laughs] and when I decide something…tab who hokar hi reh jata hai…I make sure its done. Zahira draws the curtain. The Chorus projects onto the screen Samta Ganguli goes on a fast unto death against the TATA car factory The TV anchoress is at her sexy stylish best. On the 23rd day of her fast, drinking only water every day Samta Ganguli the Chartaka congress Chief condition has very seriously deteriorated causing grave concern to her supporters. The Chief Minister Mahavir Acharya in a surprise political move has requested Samta Ganguli to give up her fast and has invited her to a feast of excellent bengali cuisine which he will personally supervise. As the chief minister in his address to the bengali TV channels said its an offer Samta cannot and must not refuse. Samta Ganguli who has been in an out of consciousness for the past two days is yet to respond to the Chief Ministers offer. With her fast deteriorating health the chief minister has a serious crisis on his hands…RDTV has done a survey on people’s reactions to the fast and the political battle ahead and here is what ordinary people had to say… Chorus projects onto the curtain [citizen 1 on video]Is Samta this important to change the face of India that all medical help and attention is kept ready for her? Do the thousands who die without medical aid all across the country matter less? Is there a different price for her than for other Indians?     [citizen 2 on video]I have full support for Samta. It makes nonsense to set up a car factory in highly fertile land employing about 1, 00,000 people. There are enough land available in West Bengal, which are also geographically closer to existing plants at Jamshedpur or Kharagpur.     [citizen 3 on video]Ms.Samta Ganguli is only after her popularity at the cost of farmers and the people of West Bengal. West Bengal needs many industries and investments to prosper like other industrialized Indian states.     [citizen 4 on video]Please end this madam. Enough is enough. There are many poor people in this country who don’t have food to eat. But this politicians really what they want to achieve god only knows. A month ago Samta and her party vandalized the Assembly. Suddenly she become Mahatma Gandhi.     [citizen 5 on video]I extend my full support to Ms.Ganguli.She is doing all this for the people of Bangal and farmer in particular. Communist regime has no moral ground to go ahead with this project as they opposed capitalist companies tooth and nail in the past     Zahira draws the curtain open and comes into the room to check the time left… Zahira: This Samta Ganguli is quite amazing …23 days on just water…nothing else…here in the clinic there are customers who cannot stay without food for 23 minutes…there was one who just came in …a short while back…in 9 months she hasn’t lost 500 gms… I’ve done them all on her…electronic tapping …tummy tucks… massages…hot towels. Everything…but she is still where she was, 25 kgs overweight….I have to call her everyday. To keep a check on what she is eating. She will tell me with a straight face…O today I have been very good…just had water all day…then when she comes here her weight is up 2 kgs…she’s really shameless. She’ll say sorry I forgot…I had a lot at tea time…3 samosas…gulab jamuns…and 3 emertis… I told Sunita madam that this one is a gone case we should let her go. But Sunita Madam says if she doesn’t have a problem wasting her money why should we? Well, she has a point. She has to run her business. But for me, I feel sick and tired sometimes of massaging her fat body…like with you its different…you’ve put your heart in losing weight…that makes me feel so good…I mean even if this is a strange and ridiculous thing to do…if we do it with our hearts …one feels one has achieved something…but with her one feels…humiliated…Acha 6 minute left …If you need anything just buzz. She steps out drawing the curtain behind her. The chorus projects onto the curtain, another sexy TV news anchoress The demolition drive in the city of Delhi ordered by the Supreme Court has now found a new and controversial victim. The Supreme Court has instructed its commissioner to inform the authorities that run the shrine of Sufi Sarmad fakir, right next to the Jama Masjid that the court has directed the shrine to be relocated to another site, under the supervision of the Archaeological Survey of India. This move will be seen as very controversial for Sarmad is a well revered Sufi saint by the people not only of old Delhi but even world wide. Sarmad’s body is buried in the shrine. In fact the local people believe that the saint is in fact alive and only sleeping, resting in his shrine. The chorus: For those unfamiliar with Sarmad’s story he was a Sufi fakir in the times of Aurangzeb who the emperor beheaded accusing him of being a sympathizer and well wisher of Dara Shiko Aurangzeb’s elder brother and rival, whom Aurangzeb defeated and killed in battle. Then he was charged for being nude, which is against the teachings of the shar’iah. Finally he was charged with not speaking the full kalmah and only reciting part of the first line saying “There is no god” while continuing no further. By this charge he was accused of attempting to question or deny the existence of god by cunningly stopping at the negation of gods existence in the kalma There is no God but Allah And Mohammad is the messenger of Allah His replies were found unacceptable and he was ordered to be beheaded. The next day he was taken to the execution spot. When the executioner came near him with a gleaming sword in his hand, he smiled on seeing him and while lifting his eyes to the heavens spoke these historic words: We see Sarmad upstage for the first time standing nude behind a curtain. Sarmad: There was a commotion and I opened my eyes from the dream of non-existence I saw that the night of sedition still remained, and so went back to sleep! “May I be sacrificed for you? Come, come, for whichever guise you come in, I recognize you!” Chorus: After his martyrdom the words, “There is no god but Allah” were heard from his mouth thrice. Not only did his severed head recite the kalmah but also it continued to praise Allah almighty for some time afterwards. The people in Delhi greatly venerate the grave of Sarmad and daily burn candles and incense and sprinkle fresh rose water and flowers on it. Zahira draws open the curtain and comes in to the room Zahira looks at the weight loss machine clock Zahira: Just 2 minutes left…Arrey did you see just now my dear saint Sarmad Sufi’s dargah ….I love him a lot…. I live very close to his shrine. …Often …returning from work, before going home, I spend time there…they say he fulfills any secret desire expressed to him…No one knows but my first child I wanted was a girl, and a girl is what he gave me…. it was his blessings that made it happen…if you have any desire, dream ...I will take you there…you can ask him…and it will get fulfilled. The time for the vibrating pads is up and Zahira starts taking all the pads off…. she keeps talking But you’ll have to hurry…they say the government is planning to build a hotel there…A lot of people come to the masjid from all over the world…in the thousands…but there is no decent hotel nearby. Especially for the millionaire Arab Sheikhs who would like to come…so a five star hotel is being planned there. All over India old buildings are being removed. In Baroda there was a 400yr old dargah that was demolished…they ask…what’s the problem in relocating a gravesite? But I say …a dargah is not just any graveyard…it is no ordinary grave there…in a dargah we believe the saint is resting. He’s sleeping there. Dargah’s don’t hold corpses within them…there the saint lives…. it’s his home. It’s a way to keep goodness alive…not letting it die and disappear from the world. …amongst thousands do you find one good human being and our Sarmad Sufi was a good man among millions. He came from Armenia as a merchant, then fell in love with a Hindu boy and got distracted and so lost in love that he wore no clothes…. people see him as a saint of love and goodness…. they say when the emperor Aurangzeb had him beheaded his disembodied head…. kept reciting the holy kalma. …Kept repeating Allah’s name…and his headless body holding his bleeding head in one hand…walked right up the steps of the sacred Jama Masjid…. Zahira has just finished the removal of the weight loss machine pads. Kalpana has stood up for Zahira to make the bed for an oil massage. Just then the phone rings. It’s Kalpana’s husband again, she paces around the room talking to him. Zahira prepares the bed, then the oil for the massage Why are you calling again? Don’t you get the message? I don’t want to talk to you. Not now…not tonight…and maybe not ever …if I can help it. What are you sorry about? It’s not just enough to say you are sorry you have to spell it out. What are you sorry about? Have you any idea what it feels like to live with someone for two years who has been lying to you? Yes you have been lying to me. I know what a travel agency is about and now I know what kind of travel business you are in? Does your mother know? Do any of your relatives know? What you actually do? For two years you fooled me and now I know why you carried that laptop of yours so close to you. It was because it contained all the secrets of your dirty business you bastard. What you didn’t know that despite your disapproval I had learnt to use the computer. I learnt to use the email, have my own account and then one day you leave your laptop behind and I get to find out the truth. Don’t give me that its legal business nonsense…you bastard you lied to me…for all these months …and I will never forgive you for that…Go find yourself some other body to do your dirty business with. Once again Kalpana is overwhelmed by her anger, she breaks down crying. Zahira doesn’t say anything; she is ready for the massage. Kaplan lies down on the bed on her stomach with her head buried in the pillow. Zahira begins to massage her while telling her a story of Zebunissa daughter of Aurangzeb the Mughal emperor. Zahinra: I love poetry, ghazal anything in verse, have you heard this poem by Zebunissa "Though I am Laila of Persian romance, my heart loves like ferocious Majnu. I want to go to the desert but modesty is chains on my feet. A nightingale came to the flower garden because she was my pupil. I am an expert in things of love. Even the moth is my disciple!" Zeb-un-Nissa was the daughter of Aurangzeb the Mughal Emperor. A poet and a wild one it is rumored she was a lover of women writing her poems under the name of makhfi or the hidden one. She was 21 years old, when her father seized the throne from his father, Shah Jahan. One day he invited Nasser Ali, a handsome Persian noble, to a contest with his daughter. The challenge was that Ali would recite the first misra/line of a couplet. and Zeb would have to complete it within three days. If she failed she would have to renounce her poetry forever. Ali composed the following Durre ablaq kase kam deeda maujud Rare it is to find a pearl both black and white For three days Zebunissa failed to find an apt response. She preferred to die than give up her poetry, so she prepared for her last moments by calling a Hindu girl she was in love with to her quarters. As Zebunissa prepared to eat her own diamond ring, her beautiful friend wept tears of distress. As she wept, Zeb began to smile and then spoke out joyously Weep no more, dear one for I have found the second line of the couplet. She summoned Aurangzeb immediately to her palace and recited Durre ablaq kase kam deeda maujud Rare it is to find a pearl that is both black and white and then. Bajus ashqe butane surma aabud Except a teardrop in the darkened eye of a lover The Chorus Sings Sarmad Sufi’s song. Along the road you were my companion Seeking the path you were my guide No matter to whom I spoke it was you who answered When Sun called Moon to sky it was you who shone In the night of aloneness you were my comforter When I laughed you were the smile on my lips When I cried you were the tears on my face When I wrote you were the verse When I sang you were the song Rarely did my heart desire another lover Then when it did you came to me in the other. Aurangzeb’s self defense A thin wiry old man walks on stage. Dressed as an emperor in silks and pearls. Aurangzeb: Aadab arz hai my countrymen my greetings to you. Perhaps you don’t know who I am, in the 17th century I ruled over India for half a decade that is nearly fifty years. I am Aurangzeb the Mughal emperor. During my reign I gathered peace in my hand and held it tight and fought only to maintain it, to keep my empire as one, so that ordinary people could work and earn their living, their families safe and secure. The country that has a new ruler every six months, a new vision of growth and progress every twelve, is a country that lives in perpetual chaos driving itself in many directions and going nowhere. With enemies on its border and enemies within constant strife and change burns the energy of its people wasting a nation’s time, life and existence. One emperor and one empire for fifty years…that was my rule. When the heart beats strong the body is healthy, grows flowers. It is no easy task to rule a country for half a century…it was God’s will of course…but it was also the love and trust of my courtiers, my kinsmen and my people…or else…some enemy, some thug, courtier, friend, or even my own security guard would have plunged a knife into my back. Whatever happened was the final truth. For fifty years I put my heart, breath and every muscle into making this a country of peace and prosperity where ordinary people could work live and prosper. Despite all this I am accused of many terrible crimes. The Chorus: That is correct Emperor Aurangzeb. You in fact are one of the most reviled and controversial men in Indian history. It is for this that I have decided to give you a chance, here in the people’s court, to defend yourself. Here are the charges made by the ordinary people of India. Chorus projects on curtain Citizen 1: The first charge you are accused of is the murder of your own elder brother, the crown prince to the Mughal throne, Dara Shikoh, a man loved both by your Hindu and Muslim subjects, a Sufi by nature, a man of inquiry and wonder, a poet. You fought battles with him and eventually ordered his beheading. Besides Dara Shikoh you also drove your brother Prince Murad into exile, where he died a terrible death, as well as you had your youngest brother, Murad murdered. How can you argue against this terrible crime? Aurangzeb: Dear Countrymen, citizens of free India, I have an answer for each of these accusations however terrible they may seem from your point of view in history, and I am thankful for this opportunity given to me to personally clarify each charge made against me. First my brothers and my terrible treatment of them…their defeat… the death…of Dara …was in War…I fought them in battle…used the fairest means…to battle…and they in turn…fought back…warred with me…If they at the first instance had laid down their arms at my first battle cry…. then their death, exile could have been avoided…As you don’t clap with one hand you don’t battle alone…War only takes place when two decide to fight. It is never never a singular choice… Yes I defeated and killed my elder brother Dara to become emperor of India…what is the truth? Is Dara’s right to the throne the truth? Why? Where is it written and whose hand is it that has written it? Did I too not have a right? And my brothers …and sisters…in fact it was my belief that it was everyone’s …right…. each countrymen’s right…to become emperor…he who had the strength and power to rule and control this kingdom…had the right to be king. And how was this strength to be judged…. by a singing competition, by playing dice, or horse racing…or …by fighting…warring…on the battlefield…putting your life at stake…either you or I…and the survivor…becomes the Emperor. Yes I became the emperor by defeating and killing Dara Shikoh…. Yes I became emperor by defeating and exiling Shah Shuja Yes I murdered Prince Murad All this because they fought me in battle. And I defeated each of them in battle I am not proud of the fact that I killed my brothers…but…then we were not flying kites together, this was a fight for the throne…of Hindustan. A King after all is a King…and consequently a crown a crown something worth fighting and dying for. It is not easy to speak truths simply, clearly but years later to say what I have known all along…brings peace …to my own heart…. Chorus: Well spoken Aurangzeb. I am not here to pass judgment on you, but to give you a chance to redeem yourself. The final decision will however be the peoples whose court you are standing in. I, as the only lonely chorus am only their representative. Here comes the next charge. Citizen 2: Emperor Aurangzeb, in Hindustan there is nothing as sacred as a parent and nothing as reviled as the ill treatment of one. You imprisoned your father, the great Shah Jahan, the creator of the most exquisite Taj Mahal for 7 long years, in the Red Fort at Agra. Was this just, fair, necessary? Was this an act of an emperor? Or was it a reflection of your petty paranoid personality that lived out of fear, and controlled the world around you, through fear and terror, even imprisoning a dear wonderful man like Shah Jahan who besides all other wonderful things was your father. How can you not be regretful of this act? Aurangzeb: It is true that I imprisoned my father for seven long years in the Red fort at Agra. Agra was where my father had built the Taj Mahal as a tomb for my mother Mumtaz Mahal. However I request you to see reason in my following words? If I killed my dear elder brother was it then so difficult to kill an ageing father? But I didn’t kill him. Hindus believe that old age is a time to be spent in the forest. I too was hoping that for my father, that he would choose to live away from the chaos of city life but he chose not to, he wanted to be near the tomb of my dear mother, his dear Mumtaz. I found a room for him in the red fort from where he could see his beloved Taj Mahal. Was this a crime? I had seen my parent’s love…and I had also seen my father’s broken heart…. at my mothers death. Only I know how happy he was those seven years…. near his beloved Mumtaz…near her tomb…the Taj Mahal. Only I know how happy he was there in the red fort. I knew how precious the Taj Mahal was to Shah Jahan. I also know how precious it is to the world…to each one of you…But the truth is…that right from its beginning…I was against it being built…for me a tomb is 6 yards of land…some dust sprinkled with respect…and at the most extravagant a tombstone. Perhaps you have not read my will and testament. In it I have left the two rupees and fifty paisa that I earned darning socks and selling them to my courtiers…to my gardener. That’s the kind of simplicity I believed Kingship should be made of. When your countrymen don’t have enough to eat, when they sleep unprotected from natures fury, when disease wracks and death stalks your people, a marble monument for an emperors wife is nonsensical…in fact is ugly…vulgar. An emperor does not need to wear silk An emperor can do well without pearls and diamonds An emperor’s tomb should be of ordinary stone and earth An emperor should build only those buildings where people can gather…and shade themselves from the sun…and pray…like a mosque…. Was all this a crime? And if it was then the accusation hold true…but if not…then…I have wrongly been accused and slandered by history. Chorus: Well argued Aurangzeb. You have made your point. This is the truth of perspective, that given time everything can be made to look different, for better or worse. Who am I an only lonely chorus to pass judgment? My job is to set things up and observe. The charges against you are endless but we will restrict ourselves to this final charge, which above all others concerns us today. If your answer to this too is as sharp as the other two then perhaps historians will look at your case differently. Judge you differently…for better or worse. Now for the third and final charge Citizen 3: You are charged Alamgir Aurangzeb with the cruel beheading of the Saint of love and Goodness Sarmad Sufi. What was his crime? That he wore no cloak to hide a dagger in? That he tread terribly dangerous ground by his denial of god’s existence…in the first part of the kalma stopping at ‘there is no god’….was this so very threatening to your existence that you needed him dead? Why? Why did you kill this naked poet? Aurangzeb: Dear friend, a king must know both how to make a horse gallop as well as to reign it in and that sometimes with a terrible crack of the whip, as I did with Sarmad the naked Sufi fakir. The truth is always simple. On the one hand was the great fakir, with his wisdom and his poetry, his songs and his followers and the other was his naked body. It is an ugly sight in the public space. To see a naked man. Sarmad was never mad…only madly in love with a Hindu boy. These two were so busy taking their clothes off that they were never able to put them back on again! For the majority to prosper, an emperor’s supreme task is to maintain law and order. And that is why when I saw crowds gather around this nudity I decided to do away with him. To maintain the sacred dignity of my reign I was willing to do anything. Dance, music, art, ecstasy, joy happiness were on one side and the hunger of my people was on the other. For me two simple meals a day A set of clean clothes covering my body And prayer, five times a day…. This was my strength This is what helped me rule for 48 years, helped me keep secure an empire. In all of histories many lies, these are a few of my own simple truths…now spoken they bring a quietude and peace to my heart. The rest is for you to judge fairly or with the worst prejudice…. as has been the case so far. Zahira continues to massage Kalpana and sing Sarmads verses. We can see them in the weight loss room through the curtain. For a while nothing happens. Then a middle-aged man walks on stage. Mahavir Acharya: My fellow Bengali comrades and friends…I address to you the good people of Bengal…. but I also know that the rest of the nation is listening…. and that is why I am not speaking in our sweet mother tongue Bengali. English is a very deceptive language but be rest assured I am not here to deceive you. I am here to say what I do know as our good friend Brutus once said. I am here today as an ordinary man caught in extraordinary circumstances. Of course I am chief minister of Bengal, of course I am member of the Communist Party’s Politburo, but above everything else I speak to you as an ordinary man…as just one more Bengali amongst you many wonderful Bengalis. What is the extraordinary circumstance this ordinary man is facing? Is it about the industrialization of Bengal? Is it about the conflict between the agrarian and city world? Is it about the dialects of materialism that speak with different tongues in different languages? Or is it more specifically about the car project? Have the Tata’s not done business honorably in India for the past 75 years? And now they want to start a car project. Is it a luxury car project? No. They want to make the cheapest car in the world. And why do they want to build it because they want to make lakhs of families that ride dangerously on scooters safe. Is this a sin I ask you? There are so many questions my friends that if you want you can keep raising them and I can keep answering them. But the issue I want to place before you is not the Tata’s and the car project. It is not about the acquisition of a thousand acres of land. It is not about compensation and rehabilitation. It is not even about Samta Ganguli and her reactionary politics. But it is about her fast. Today I speak to you dear Bengali people not as a Chief Minister but as another fellow Bengali. Samta Ganguli’s fast is twenty-three days old. Her condition is critical. I have to grant when she first started I thought she is throwing a tantrum, it will soon be over. But she is serous I have to grant her that. Samta says she will die fasting. As a chief minister I am faced with a grave political situation. If Samta dies fasting it will mean political disaster for me. I know that. I have offered to discuss all issues with her but she refuses sipping water only for the past twenty-three days. In the morning water…afternoon water…evening water. No food. No BENGALI food. Let me repeat that for you dear Bengali people…this critical detail…for twenty three days and seventy two meals Samta Ganguli has refused to eat Bengali food. In my opinion this is a shameful degradation and disrespect of Bengali culture. It is unpardonable. Let me clarify my position further. This whole business of fasting was made successful by the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi. God bless him. One he was a thin man. Unlike Samta who is definitely not. Exactly my point she likes food. And secondly and more importantly he was not a Bengali but a Gujarat which implies quite naturally that he ate Gujrati food. Now I do not want to offend any of my many Gujrati friends….but I ask you to think of a dhokla on one side and a well cooked chingari macher malai curry on the other…is there any comparison? Friends this is my understanding of historical processes, that the political weapon of fasting became successful in the hands or belly of the Mahatma not because it was a non violent act against the British but because in the first instance it was so easily done…it was possible because it was so easily to avoid eating Gujrati food. I speak to you as a Bengali and a true Bengali speaks. Can anyone of us stay without Bengali food even for a day? Wherever I go in the world…if I meet a Bengali …the first and last thing we discuss is…illish mach, luchi and tangra mach, chorchori…ladies and gentlemen…it is my contention that Bengali food is at the heart of Bengali culture and civilization and a rejection of Bengali food is consequently a rejection of the Bengali people. This is unacceptable, intolerable and must end. Samta Ganguli must end her fast. So as Lenin said what is to be done? Very good question. I chief Minister of Bengal tell myself that I am not an emperor of India in 17th century like Aurangzeb. I cannot ask a political rival like Sarmad to be beheaded. Nor am I like Indira Gandhi to impose emergency and throw all opposition to jail. As a true democrat and a true Marxist I can only offer a dialogue…a true and honest discussion on every issue. And that is what I propose to do. Fellow Bengali friends I have decided to cook a feast for Samta Ganguli and invite her to it. This is an offer she cannot refuse. We as a people must not allow her to refuse. Samta Ganguli must end her fast. See what we plan to cook for her…the finest macher matha…fish head…. The chorus of one sings the song of the macher matha –the fish head. In Bengali O what joy to be a Bengali and eat macher matha On a rainy day O hilsa ma You great giver of joy and anando Whose Matha forehead is split into two And body smeared with salt and turmeric Who twists and turns and squirms in a frenzy And is fried in bubbling burning boiling oil And lying there all bathed and slippery Is showered and blessed with A curry of Coconut and Coriander And in this cooks the fishe’s head O what joy it is to be a Bengali What joy to eat a marcher matha On a rainy monsoon day O great fish who swam in the great sea All day happily with your family Till one day a fisherman’s net Brought you out to the sandy shore I watched as with the others of your family You were sold to a fat woman of sixty Who chopped your head into two And sang to you as the oil boiled O what joy to be a Bengali? What joy to eat a macher matha On a rainy monsoon day As the Chorus sings the song of the macher matha the massage is over Kalpana gets up and rubs herself all over with a towel Zahira is preparing material for a tummy tuck It’s like a gluey paste that concretizes once pasted over a newspaper spread over the belly. Kalpana slips out of the room briefly saying Kalpana: Just be back…I need to do some piss loss…a piss loss during the session helps reduce the final weight by at least 300 grams…be back… They laugh… Things are quiet as Zahira prepares a tummy tuck She is singing the Sufi song…she switches the channel and on the TV there is Kaun banega crorepati (who will be a millionaire) Kalpana returns …settles down to a tummy tuck. Watching KBC… Kalpana’s phone rings…. Zahira looks at her to say shall I take it Kalpana indicates she can handle it Kalpana: What is it you want you bastard? Can’t you leave a woman alone? Don’t you get it? I am through with you I am not coming home tonight. Its over (pause). That is none of your business. I have friends who you don’t know. If you think you are the only one with a secret life well I have a secret life too. That’s exactly what happens. When a marriage is based on a lie…then you get two people with two secret lives. (Pause) Well that is why I have suffered you for so long you bastard and you’ve taken full advantage of that…well that too is over…. tonight you give her the medicines…Call Dr. Nath now. His number is stuck on the refrigerator. Tell him my wife has left me. And I now need to take responsibility for my mothers’ medicines. Do that not just for your mother but also for yourself. Not that I really care. And don’t push me to tell you what I really want to say. This is not a game of cards with your buddies that you can choose to play another round…and try your luck again…for me…at least…this is as real as it gets…and I am out finally…. please don’t call me again…if you call me again…even the smallest care or respect I have for you …for any of the brief moments of happiness that we may have shared…. together will be gone…. So please just leave me alone. There is a pause and silence as Kalpana finds herself again. Zahira who has been there watching TV lowers the volume Zahira: Agar aap bura na maney…May I ask what your husband does? Kalpana: It’s really quite shameful. He runs a travel business. Where people from rich countries come to India, but not for tourism, they come for an organ transplant. usually a kidney, or a lung, or sometimes even a heart… He sets up everything…from the donor…to the doctor and the hospital…to their hotel and stay and all the travel arrangements. So in a way it is the travel arrangement that he had told me about….but of course its not…. let me show you something. Saying this Kalpana closes the curtain The Chorus projects form his laptop onto the curtain a power point presentation The power point shows the donors available The hospitals The hotels The donors are poor people. Their bodies are x rayed. The organs revealed through ultra sound tests…one by one… Suddenly there is a black out….we hear Zahira shout…. Zahira: Oh ho…. power cut…. Zahid…generator on karo…. Zahid takes his time to switch it on. Kalpana grumbles in the dark. Zahira: Sunita madam ko kitni bar mainey kaha inverter laga do lekin vohi purana broken generator chala rahi hai…. Shahid…. It takes a while. When the lights do come on…we see Aurangzeb pacing up and down…. with him is his chief courtier a Maulvi-muslim priest Aurangzeb: Has anyone…even the slightest sympathy…with an emperor…of what he has to bear, to suffer…all in a good days work…there to the north…the khalsa sikh army is roaring like lions wanting to tear our bowels out…next in the east…there is famine…and thousands are dying everyday and food has to somehow be got across to them…and while you think of a solution for that you must also solve the problem of robbers and bandits that are looting the highways….and in all this come the horses from Arabia and I must be sure to choose the best hundred for my personal army…and finally if all this was not enough ….this disgusting spectacle…of a naked fakir coming to this great court of my ancestors the great Moghuls What are all of you here for you good for nothings? All of you courtiers and maulvis and wise men of dilli…could you not put your silly heads together and solve it …then come to me and say…Emperor …here is the solution…here is the way for you to avoided being attacked by this horrid man’s horrid nudity….but no, even this problem I must solve….. Maulvi1: Forgive my saying so my lord but we did try…it’s only that it is such a delicate matter that we….. Aurangzeb: Delicate…nonsense…. rubbish…. I will tell what to do…since there is no help from any of you…. I hate to be faced with this man’s naked…. thing…perhaps for the first time…in this great court of the moguls, where for centuries people have come from far and near…dressed in the finest of silks…adorned with gold and diamonds and pearl ornaments…bedecked, bejeweled and always covered from head to toe…and now for the first time…this naked thing…. faces us, dares to…. Let there be a curtain hung here…that I might see him Smokey…cloudily…his…thing…hidden… I shall only briefly hold court…while you question…then I shall have his skin stripped off his back…and if anyone questions…I will say I was only taking of his shirt…. Hang a curtain here in the middle of the stage…. and hide…. this ugliness…. Maulvi 1 Your highness forgive me but we had thought of this option…and we came to this conclusion…. that by hanging a curtain/a purdah…in a way… the emperor…that is you my lord…. will be on one side…and since it will clearly be seen that the naked fakir…is male…. only because it will be so obvious…this side…that is the side…that is of the emperor …will be perceived…by the perceptive and even the ordinary…it being so obvious…. that the emperor is feminine…which I am sure your lordship will not consider the appropriate position you would like to be…. Please forgive me if in my haste to advise you I have said …anything thing that would…. Aurangzeb: All right all right enough of this fawning…for once…and I am amazed …you are right…. This curtain thing will put me in …the …zenana…in the wrong place…so if you have thought so much…what is the solution? Facing his…manhood …straight on is also degrading for me…it is obscene…vulgar…. Maulvi I: Yes Your highness …it is…you are very right…. it is for that we Maulvis have after great deliberation…come to the conclusion that perhaps there is only one solution out of this…. if you allow me to…. show…you…If I may…. when I turn around like this…with my back to you…. I am in a way…making my back …a curtain…through which I cannot see you…. in this way…I have placed myself within the curtain…and while you can see both me and my curtain clearly I cannot see you…Now it is obvious that in this position his naked backside will offend your imperial eyes…but in a way it is better than seeing the front…I mean, if we see the front as…masculine…we can say that the back is. …Feminine…and your Highness will be…. therefore looking at the feminine …and be clearly male…. and of course this will only be for a short time…the length of of four questions and four answers…then his fate is sealed…this was our logic …the decision of course can only be yours…. Aurangzeb: What a bloody headache…. does anyone have any idea what an emperor has to go through in a day…what I have to bear, to suffer? Call that naked fakir and turn him around…let him turn around there and cover himself with his own curtain…it is after all just a little play we are putting on…the real is decided…. I shall have him beheaded; color his back, his curtain a bloody red…. Call him…let him come…. The chorus projects on the curtain We see shrine of Sarmad right next to the Jama Masjid On stage the Commissioner walks in. He addresses the shrine projected onto the curtain. He is a very honest earnest looking bureaucrat government officer. Commissioner: My dear Saint. My apologies that I come here to disturb you. I have been appointed by the Supreme Court of India to serve you notice of your eviction and relocation. I am here as the courts representative. I am here to do a job. I hope you will forgive me. Perhaps I need to explain the courts decision. India is changing moving fast forwards. It is developing. But certain communities In India are being left behind. The Muslim minority is one. As the courts observed due to Islamic ideals of not profiting by taking…. interest…. on loans and investments…most Muslims do not invest in the stock market…. they still prefer to keep hard cash…under the mattress. Now as you will observe dear saint…. this is no way to prosper in the modern world…. where instantly electronically trillions of dollars are moved around the world…The consequence of this conservatism is that there are very few Muslims who are getting really rich and powerful in this new economy. In a world driven by economics this is a serious drawback to the community. The honorable court observed that the Muslim community needs to be represented by and engage with wealthy Muslims/Arabs. It is for this that the idea of a five star hotel right next to the Jama Masjid appealed to the court. This will attract rich Arab sheikhs whose charity engagement and business sense will help uplift the Indian Muslim community. It is very unfortunate that this shrine falls within the area designated by the court…for the owners of the hotel … have promised to rehabilitate all the beggars…. that live around the shrine…by giving them jobs as waiters, car attendants etc…anyone who is genuinely involved with the shrine will not suffer…a dislocation… As you are held with such deep and sacred affection the honorable court has requested that I speak to you first and that this be done with your will and consent…. if however you refuse…. the court has also directed me to tell you…. that it is firm in its decision and it has no other stronger means of persuasion…than this your humble self…. An executioner with a gleaming sword in hand takes his place So I request you to wake from your sleep and begin the negotiation The Commissioner withdraws and in the meantime the entire court of Aurangzeb take their places on stage Aurangzeb: leh aayo usey …jaldi karo…. namaz ka vakht honey aa raha hai…. Lets get it over with as quickly as we can…. A court announcer announces the entrance of Sarmad Sufi Sarmad stands upstage. His back to the audience. The trial begins Maulvi 1: Sarmad Sufi Shahanshah Alamgir Aurangzeb’s court of infinite justice makes four clear accusations. …Your answer for each charge will be recorded in the royal book for posterity…. and after the fourth the emperor will give his verdict… The first accusation is that you sided with the emperor’s enemy his brother Dara going so far as to predict that the throne would be his. As you can see now Dara lies dead in his grave and your prediction has been proved a lie. You are therefore accused of lying and rumormongering about the emperor’s throne. Both are serious and grave crimes. Now say your answer clearly and wisely for it shall surely be your last. Sarmad speaks again in Persian Aurangzeb…. yeh kya keh raha hai…I didn’t understand a word of what he said…what language is he speaking it sounds gibberish to me? Maulvi 1…Your Highness this was difficult even for me…I think this was pure Persian. …Or pure Armenian for that was his place of birth…certainly not a language of Hindustan…. we will need to get a translator…. I had anticipated this so he is ready … Translator…Your highness forgive me but Sarmad Sufi is saying that his prediction indeed has come true…for is not Dara now an emperor of all existence…of the skies and the stars and the worlds beyond…something to that effect… Chorus…. wah wah…. Sarmad Sufi…. your answer will surely get you killed…your head will roll tonight…like a football…your naked body will be bloodied red tonight… . Maulvi 1 Sarmad Sufi this is great…your answer has been recorded word for word…. Now for the next accusation…that in your poetry which you call rubiayaat you say that the prophet did not ascend to heaven…as is believed and is for surely true…but that the heavens came and were found inside the prophet…as if the heavens. …were like a magicians coin…that could be whisked away at one end and then out from behind the ear…Speak the answer clearly for …it shall be recorded forever…. Sarmad speaks again in Persian/Armenian Aurangzeb…. yeh kya keh raha hai…what’s he now saying ….If he has been living in India why does he have speak in this fake ornamented kind of way that no one understands…speak translator…or more precisely translate… Translator…huzoor Sarmad Sufi yeh farma rehey hai….that the truth is there embedded in this rubaiyaat.and that he has nothing more to add They say the prophet went to the heavens Ahmad says the heavens came inside the prophet The Chorus…Wah wah Sarmad Sufi…your every answer is another step towards your doom…. your naked body will be bloodied tonight…your curtain shall be drawn forever…. Maulvi 1 Sarmad Sufi you are doing very well…here is the next accusation…. that you don’t say the kalma…like all honest Muslims should…that you say the first negation …there is no god…and then stop very cunningly at this point not speaking the rest…denying the existence or at least questioning the existence of god…For the last time you are being given a chance to say what should be said correctly…first I will say the kalma and then you will repeat it perfectly without hesitation and without error…. La ilahi lilallah Muhammad rasool Allah Sarmad speaks in Persian/Armenian Aurangzeb…This is ridiculous…. I just feel like beheading him for talking nonsense…. for not making sense to an emperor. Isn’t that sufficient ground for his death…that I could not understand what he said…and he wasn’t bothered…this is ridiculous…translator. Translator…Your Highness Sarmad Sufi says…that even as he speaks the negation… “there is no god”…he experiences ecstasy and loses consciousness and cannot continue…. Chorus…..Wah wah Sarmad Sufi what a cunning answer. You had one chance. Your last. And you let it go…its over…the head is to be cut. the body bloodied…the show is over. please someone draw the curtain the show is over…. final accusation please…. Maulvi 1 Samrad Sufi…your rebellion is now out in the open…. that you will go to any extent to offend and then find a smart answer…well…now between this final accusation and your death…is now your last smart answer…here comes the accusation…. You are accused Sarmad Sufi finally of vulgarity…just look at you. The creator made clothes…for everyone to be dressed in, to be civil…but you like a madman...roam naked…caring for no one…nor child…nor woman. Nor mother nor sister…do you think of yourself as one of the emperor’s garden roses that you are worthy of being looked at…. do you not have even a shred of modesty of shame? Sarmad speaks etc…. Aurangzeb just curls up in agony saying nothing The translator: Your highness Sarmad Sufi is saying…that if anyone is offended by his naked body they can close their eyes and he will surely go away …become invisible…. And he adds to this a verse He who stole the evil eye and wine from me Is the thief that has stolen my clothes too…. At this Aurangzeb explodes Aurangzeb: Now the one above too is a thief for Sarmad…next…I Alamgir…emperor of Hindustan will be called a common robber…. this is blasphemous, inexcusable…he has gone beyond the edge. The abyss…death is calling now …call the executioner…let him draw his sword…and behead this fraud…let his curtain be bloodied…let it be drawn…let his own body be his shroud…let this end now The executioner steps forward. A member of the chorus leaps forward holding a loin cloth begging Sarmad to cover his nudity…. and save his life… My dear saint…. just wear this…brief…. and save your life…. The Chorus: When the executioner came near Sarmad with a gleaming sword in hand he smiled on seeing him, and then lifting his eyes to heaven spoke these historic words. May I be sacrificed for you, come for which ever guise you come in I recognize you… There was a commotion and I opened my eyes from the dream of non-existence…I saw that a night of sedition still remained and so went back to sleep. Then the executioner steps forward. As the executioner cuts off Sarmad’s head there is a blackout On the curtain we see his naked back all the way to its neck On the curtain we see the blood slowly dripping down a naked back Then the image of a face replaces the naked and bloody back. The face speaks the kalma 3 times La ilahi lil Allah Muhammad rasoolallah There is no god but Allah The chorus sings Sarmad’s verses In the weight loss room the tummy tuck is over Zahira draws the curtain Kalpana is taking her weight Kalpana: Today I have lost 600 gms… Zahira:( writing down) from 52.6 you have come down to 52 kgs…very good… Kalpana starts getting dressed Kalpana: Aaaj raat…can I stay with you? I don’t want to go home…. Zahira: of course…I was thinking about it…that I would ask you. My husband feels very happy to see me with my girl friends…then he thinks our marriage is safe…if only he knew….come …you sleep with me tonight…tomorrow morning we will go see Sarmad’s shrine….it will be fun….Shall we go…? Kalpana: After you. Zahira: No after you …you’re still our customer. They both laugh they leave the stage On the curtain we see a bulldozer .The court commissioner is sitting on it talking on his cell phone. In the background we can see the Jama Masjid Chorus: So this is how we end our story…. of India 2007.With a bulldozer moving towards the shrine of Sarmad Sufi right next to the Jama Masjid…. Will a hotel be built there? Or will people resist this demolition of a holy shrine. Only time will tell. In Sunita Sharma’s clinic Kalpana Katkar has now slimmed down to a very sexy and attractive figure. She has passed her audition for the TV anchor’s job. Soon you will see her on T.V bringing you the latest news happenings. She has also filed for divorce. And what of Samta Ganguli? Well perhaps most of you know already know she is after all a very famous leader. Samta Ganguli refused the chief ministers offer of a Bengali feast. She did break her fast soon after though…. but the people’s fight against their acquisition and displacement from ancestral lands has only intensified. In one village it has even turned violent. The villagers created barricades and defenses and even armed themselves and the police had to turn the guns on them killing 14 villagers. Video of Nandigram and the villagers war against the police… No one can be sure where this business is heading. What the future of this country holds for its people. For this moment at least, in the year 2007, right next to the Jama Masjid where millions of Muslims come to pray…the beheaded body of Sarmad Sufi rests, is asleep, as it has been for the past three centuries Sufi music The end.