Act I
Scene I

Supreme Soul: Get ready, quickly! You! Are you listening to me?

Boy: Shall I bring tea, Madam?

1st Soul: For me too! I feel totally fucked up!

2nd Soul: Bread for me and a glass of milk.

Supreme Soul: No milk, today. Take tea, income is not good!

3rd Soul: I earned you more than three thousand last night? I will have milk and jalebi.

Master: You are not in your in-laws’ house. Eat what is given to you.

(The souls have been sleeping all over the place in one large drawing room and adjoining three cabins. Some are sprawled on sofas and some on the floor. There is a kind of odour in the room which gives the sense of staleness and the dying scent of the flowers bought last night. Supreme Soul has her own large bed in one corner of the drawing room. She has her own bathroom and a cupboard. Master can share things with her. He lives with her and takes care of all her financial business and arrangement of new souls from other places. In one corner, kept high on a shelf on the wall, there is a television showing an old Hindi movie. It is 1:00 pm and the sun is high. The souls generally get up at midday and do the works like cooking, cleaning, and washing clothes. At about 5:00 pm, they get ready for the real business and wait in the drawing room for the prospective customers.)

2th Soul: I can’t stand it anymore!

4th Soul (in a whisper): Don’t speak loudly! You will be beaten if Master hears you.

(They look at the other souls who are gradually waking up and leaving the drawing room. 2th Soul has a one hundred rupee note hidden in her blouse. It was given by her regular customer. She plans to buy a few chocolates when the vendor comes in the evening.)

Scene II

(In a small town in the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal, a man, a woman, and their daughter are sitting for the breakfast.)

Man (with tears in his eyes): I miss her.

Woman: She is my daughter too!

Man: You gave her all the freedom?

Woman: Don’t blame me! You gave her everything and spoiled her!

Man: I did not know the boy she was in love would pollute her mind. He has disappeared too.

Woman: We tried our best to find her, spent thousands of rupees, and prayed to gods.

Daughter: Where is didi, ma?

Man (Embracing the youngest daughter): She has gone away to study. She will come back soon.

Woman (looking at her husband with sympathetic eyes): Get ready; you are getting ready for your school.

(A boy, about 16 years of age, enters the room and sits at the table. He has his school bag with him.)

Man: How are your studies going on?

Boy: I need Math tuition. Shall I join extra tuition class?

Man: How much do they want?

Boy: One thousand a month. It is a three months’ course.

Man: No problem. Take three thousand from my wallet.

Boy: Pa, after this school, I want to study abroad. My friends will be studying in Bangalore.

Man: I will make arrangement for everything. You just concentrate on your studies.

Boy (taking the money from his father’s wallet): Thanks, pa. Bye ma, bye pa, bye chutki.

Man (after the departure of his son): She was the eldest. How I used to take her to the shop every morning to buy chocolates and gifts. She was stubborn and she won’t go to school without chocolates.

Woman: May be she is doing fine somewhere? Who knows?

Man: Who will give her chocolates?

(The man leaves the table and enters his bedroom. He begins to get ready for his office. The woman gets busy in the house, doing household chores. The little girl is leaving the house for her school. The man gives her some money before she goes out. He kisses her on her forehead.)

Scene III

Agent: It is very difficult to find fresh things nowadays.

Friend: I think I will have to go and live in a village for a few days.

Agent: I have two in my eyes. They are ready to work as maids.

Friend: Then what is the problem?

Agent: They are living with their uncle and he is a greedy old man, harami!

Friend: How much did you offer?

Agent (lighting his cigarette): Five thousand a piece.

Friend: Money is hard to find nowadays.

Agent: Can’t sell products for more than twenty thousand a piece. Then there are expenses, money to mama, train ticket, hotel charges, and clothes, etc.

Friend: We will have to raise price. Call your friend there and tell him.

Agent: How much?

Friend: At least forty thousand a piece!

Agent: He won’t agree because Madam takes the decisions.

Friend: Fresh pieces don’t come cheap. You will have to tell her.

Agent: I will try.

Friend: Why not to look for an individual?

Agent: It is quite difficult. Rich men are afraid of the mediators. They are happy to call the kotha and have a piece sent.

Friend: I know one in Delhi.

Agent: Let’s sit somewhere.

(They enter a nearby beer bar and occupy a table. It is about seven in the evening. The dance girls are about to begin their performance. In Kathmandu, even college girls are involved in this business.)

Friend: I know her.

Agent: The one dancing in front?

Friend: Yes, she studies in the college near my room.

Agent: You tried to make a pass on her.

Friend: She goes with rich ones only.

Agent: She is not local.

Friend: From Pokhara.

 (The music gets louder and the dance pulls the attention of the drinkers. The small bar is filled with young men, with their pockets full of currency notes. The cigarette smoke has made the environment hazy and the visibility is too low and the dim lights make is more difficult to recognize the person even sitting next to you.)

Scene IV

(A middle aged woman is moaning in a dark small room on the first floor of a building. She is running high fever. She is waiting for her daughter to return, crying in her bed.)

Daughter: Ma, how are you feeling now?

Ma: Give me some water.

Daughter: Have you taken your medicine?

Ma: Ho, chori.

Daughter: I got late today. It is past 11 pm today.

Ma: Why don’t you work in an office that runs in day time?

Daughter (hiding her embarrassment): We have different customers, ma. They come in the evening.

Ma: This woman from the ground floor was talking rubbish about you. I scolded her.

Daughter: Ma, people have their mouths. I am working and not doing anything else.

(Suddenly, her mobile rings. She answers the call.)

Daughter: Hello.

Caller: You left your bag in the bar today.

Daughter: I will collect it tomorrow.

Caller: I got a customer today. Why don’t you start doing this? There is a lot of money in it.

Daughter: Dance pays enough and I don’t want more. I want to complete my studies.

Caller: A customer was asking about you. He is ready to pay twenty five thousand for one go.

Daughter: Please, don’t talk about all that. You know I will never do that. All right, now I have to cook form my mother.

(She switches off the mobile and enters the small kitchen next to the room. She has brought a few things from her bar for her mother. She cooks rice and warms the chicken curry which she has brought.)

Ma: Did you cook this?

Daughter: No, ma. I brought it from my office. Food is free for us. I did not eat it there so I brought it here.

Ma: Have you written to your uncle?

Daughter: No, ma. It is no use. He will not give us our share of land.

Ma: But he has confiscated your father’s land. We must get it back.

Daughter: Father had not got the land transferred in his name. The entire piece is in uncle’s name.

Ma: I think, we should visit the village at Holi.

Daughter: No, ma. Last time they had insulted us. They threw us out of the house after the death of father.

Ma: But, chori, relatives are after all relatives.

Daughter: Will they feed us? I am happy with you. I will earn my own money and then buy a house for both of us. Aren’t you happy with me, ma?

Ma: I spent my entire life in the village. I miss them too much. I miss those fields, our cows, our dogs.

Daughter: When father was alive, we were respected. He died in the struggle and we lost everything. Don’t you remember they did not show us his dead body after the encounter? A great commander he was, they say. His wife is rotting and his daughter is a beggar.

Ma (almost in tears): Na, chori, don’t say that. Try to contact your uncle, my brother. He will definitely help us.

Daughter: He is working in Dubai, and I don’t have his address.

Ma: He can find some better work for you.

Daughter: I won’t leave you, ma.

Scene V

(The Souls are heavily made-up for the visitors. Loud music is almost deafening. There are about twenty of them, between sixteen and thirty years of age. They have fake smiles on their faces, very masterly concealing the agonies which are the inevitable and inseparable part of their existence. Supreme Soul is ensconced on her throne-like bed, chewing paan. Master is in white Kurta and pajama. He has a string of white sweet scented flowers around his right wrist. The souls are sitting on the sofas. A few girls are shaking their bodies to the tune of the music. There is everything which is needed in a perfect Asian brothel, though souls from the Souls are missing.)

First Young Man: You go in first.

Second Young Man: All right. Follow me, and don’t feel shy.

First Young Man: What if someone sees us?

Second Young Man: No one is going to see us. All are same here. All are nude in a hamam.

First Young Man: We can get AIDS here. I am afraid.

Second Young Man: You are not a man. There are methods for prevention. (He pulls a condom packet from his pocket and inserts it into the front pocket of the First Young Man’s shirt.)

First Young Man: I won’t talk. I don’t want to do it. You can do what you like.

(They enter the big hall-like drawing room. The girls are delighted to see them. They begin to call them with their eyes and fingers. Second Young Man views all the girls one by one with his experienced eyes. Suddenly, his eyes fall on the 2nd Soul. He calls her, making a gesture with his pointed finger. 2nd Soul smiles and leaves the sofa.)

Second Young Man: How much?

2nd Soul: Night?

Second Young Man: No, one or two hours.

2nd Soul: Two hundred for one go, one thousand for night.

Second Young Man: You go with my friend, there.

2nd Soul: His first time?

Second Young Man: Yes. He is shy.

2nd Soul: I will take care of everything. He is quite handsome.

(Second Young Man pushes First Young Man towards 2nd Soul. She gets hold of his left hand and pulls him towards her. She takes him to the nearest cabin. His legs are shaking and he is sweating.)

2nd Soul: What is your name?

First Young Man: I don’t want to do this.

2nd Soul: Don’t be afraid. I won’t eat you. Sit comfortably on this bed.

(She pulls him on to the bed and embraces him. He trembles but he likes it. He does not make any attempt to get freed.)

First Young Man: Why do you do this?

2nd Soul: What?

First Young Man: This work.

2nd Soul: I must do it to survive.

First Young Man: Have you ever been to school?

2nd Soul: Yes, I was in X class.

First Young Man: Where are you from?

2nd Soul: I have answered this question hundreds of times.

First Young Man: You are very beautiful.

2nd Soul: I know. All of them say so. Come and do it quickly. I have to go out. We have little time.

(She begins to take her clothes off but First Young Man stops her. He gives her one hundred rupees and begins to leave the room. She pulls his hand and makes him sit with her.)

2nd Soul: You will have to sit here for some time, otherwise Master will beat me.

First Young Man: Who is Master?

2nd Soul: If we don’t make our customers happy, we are beaten, and they don’t give us food. Please don’t tell them that you did not do anything.

First Young Man: I will come again, some other day. Now, I will go.

(First Young Man leaves the cabin and enters the drawing room. His friend is still inside one of the cabins. He sits on a sofa and waits for him. 2nd Soul sits in front of him. She smiles at him. He is attracted to her. The young mind of this inexperienced man is trying to find the thing called love which he has either seen in movies or read about in the novels and story books. He returns her smile and shifts his eyes in other direction. 2nd Souls laughs loudly and whispers something in the ear of the Soul sitting next to her.)

Second Young Man (coming out of a cabin): How was it?

First Young Man: Let’s go.

Second Young Man: Was she good?

First Young Man: We are getting late!

(They descend the narrow stairs, one at a time, and come on to the street below. Second Young Man is in a happy mood but First Young Man is very serious. He turns and looks at the number of the house. He plans to visit the place again, but alone, without his friend.)

Glossary

Bhagvaan-God

Chora-Son

Chori-Daughter

Chutki-Little Girl

Didi-Elder Sister

Hamam-Shower Room

Harami-Bastard

Ho-Yes

Holi-A Festival of Colours

Jalebi-A Traditional Sweet

Kotha-Brothel

Madam-Controller of a Brothel

Mama-Policeman

Master-Muscleman

Paan-Betel leaves combined with areca nuts, chewed as a palate cleanser, breath freshener or stimulant

Piece-Young Virgin Girl

Soul-Prostitute

Sotto Voce- In an Undertone

Supreme Soul-The Woman in Charge of a Brothel