Gestation, Truce, Nadi

PROFESSOR
This won’t happen next year, you
thought.
Next conference you would present your
own paper.
After this, Father would make sure you
went places.
(He takes off his coat)
You will be a full-fledged Associate
Professor.
VARKHA
Under your guidance, Sir.
(Professor dusts his coat, hangs it on the back of a chair with
a careful, almost overdone ‘neatness’)
PROFESSOR
(muttering)
Father is 50 years old.
(taking off his ring and keeping it on the table)
Married.
Father likes everything to be tidy.
VARKHA
I know, Sir.
(She folds the shawl into a tiny square.)
I know how to keep things
(She keeps the shawl on the seat of the same chair and pushes
the chair under the table)
Discreet.
(Professor goes up to Varkha, stands behind her, puts his hands
on her shoulders, and rubs his face against her head.)
PROFESSOR
(murmurs)
Discreet…
(He draws her closer to him, his hand now just below her chest.
He turns her around.)
VARKHA
Okay, it was me who went to his room.
But-but-
(almost gaily- as if freeing herself from all responsibility)
He should have been more responsible…
PROFESSOR
You didn’t want him to be careful.
Your body was fed up of being
disciplined and barren.
Your body wanted a baby.
Mommy wanted me.
(Professor pushes her hair back from her face)
PROFESSOR
You didn’t want him to be careful.
Your body was fed up of being
disciplined and barren.
Your body wanted a baby.
Mommy wanted me.
(Professor pushes her hair back from her face).
PROFESSOR
Discreet?
(His hand suddenly moves lower.
Varkha turns her face to look at him.)
PROFESSOR
Is that why we’ve come all the way to
this town?
Baby will be Discreetly curetted out.
Mamma’s filthy little secret.
(She tries to struggle out of his arms.)
PROFESSOR
Filthy little baby will be burnt..
Do they have an incinerator here?
Or will that nurse just go and bury me
in the backyard?
VARKHA
(calls out)
Nurse. Nurse.
(Total dark.
Then, slowly, very little light reveals the nurse holding Varkha
just as the professor had been holding her.
Nurse walks Varkha to the bed. We barely see Nurse helping
Varkha on to the bed as the screen darkens again.)
VARKHA
I cannot see anything.
(Light to show Nurse has shed the uniform. She is wearing the
white slip.
She is standing at the foot of the bed, her hands on Varkha’s
knees.)
NURSE
But baby can see Mother.
I see what you did.
I see what you plan to do.
(Nurse separates Varkha’s knees harshly.
Varkha raises her head and shoulder up-
Aggressively
But also similar to a woman ‘pushing’ during a labour
contraction.)
VARKHA
Imagining strength are we, Foetus?
Don’t forget, you are just a piece of
flesh.
NURSE
Your flesh.
(sarcastically)
M-o-t-h-e-r.
(Varkha reaches out to touch Nurse, quickly withdraws her
hand.)
VARKHA
My flesh, my body. I have the right.
NURSE
Rights? Of course- I am pro-choice too-
But this is not about what is right.
This is between you and me.
The hatred you feel for me now.
I want to hate you back.
I want to live to make your life
miserable.
VARKHA
I made you, so I am allowed to ‘unmake’
you.
NURSE
(in a genuinely loving tone)
I am a Part of you, Varkha.
(Varkha sits up.)
VARKHA
How do you know my name?
I registered here as Mrs. Joshi…
(screams)
How do you know my name?
(Nurse walks up to put her hand on Varkha’s head.)
NURSE
I know all your names.
Even the ones nobody else knows;
the names you give yourself.
(Varkha pushes the hand away, sits up, her legs stretched
in front of her.)
NURSE
I am a part of you…
VARKHA
An unwanted part.
Your death is scheduled for 11 AM.
NURSE
Do you think that only you have the
power to decide, to destroy?
Don’t forget where this little ‘piece
of flesh is’.
(Nurse puts her hand back on Varkha’s head, this time, with
force.)
NURSE
A little thing Inside you can also
destroy you, woman!
(Varkha reaches for the bell-switch.)
(Nurse grabs her hand.)
NURSE
(grins)
Plans could go wrong in this scheduled
‘Termination’ of me.
(Nurse makes scratching motions across the veins of
Varkha’s wrist.)
You could bleed to death, maybe?
(Nurse puts her one knee on the bed, and both her hands
on Varkha’s stomach.)
NURSE
(pressing Varkha’s lower abdomen.)
Or do you value your fertility more
than your life, ‘Mamma’?
Maybe you won’t bleed to death ‘Ma’.
Maybe to save your life there will be a
timely hysterectomy…
VARKHA (Pleads)
We – could- make – a deal.
Not because of the love we are supposed
to have for each other….
NURSE
…. but because of this other trait we
share-
The determination to survive-
at all costs.
VARKHA
I didn’t set out to kill you, you know;
just wanted to live.
NURSE (imploringly)
so do I.
VARKHA (holding the Nurse’s hand):
I can explain.
NURSE
There will be time for explanations.
Accusations and explanations.
But Now.
(Nurse puts her head on Varkhas’s lap.
Varkha begins to gently caress Nurse’s head.)
VARKHA (threateningly)
Yes Baby, I too can fight-that’s what
you want isn’t it?
A lifetime of the mother-daughter
conflict ahead of us.
NURSE
but now..
(counts on her fingers)
For 20 weeks, …
VARKHA
(holding Nurse’s head close to her chest)
…no fighting, my child.
FADE OUT:
THE END