THE ANCIENT MODERN(DRAMA)

In this play,a caretaker accidently forgets to lock the cells of a mental asylum. Four patients, assuming the roles of historical characters, walk out into the storm affected night. The caretaker tries to coax them back to the asylum quarters by befriending their characters.

[Thunder and lightning. Enter 4 patients, one draped in white bed-sheet, one with a walking cane hung at his waist, one with a torn jute bag tied to his forehead and one with a broken steel container placed on his head. Caretaker observes keenly]

King Lear  :          How sharper than a serpents tooth it is to have a thankless child. I am Lear, father to traitors and a mortal perfect.

Hitler         :           Don’t forget how people laughed at me fifteen years ago when I declared I shall govern Germany, O yes     Germany. They laugh now, just as foolishly, when I declare that I shall remain in power. I am Adolf, Adolf Hitler.

Ashoka      :          The mob is the empire. Control the mob and one controls the empire. I am Ashoka, Deva Nama Priya, Priyadarshi.

Aurangzeb:         Epilepsy failed to stop me, so will old age. I will rise, rise and rise till my forefathers kneel before me. I am   Alamgir, Aurangzeb of Hindustan.

[Caretaker comes before them]

King Lear   :         Forever, I have loved all my daughters.

Hitler          :          Forever, I had Jew in my blood.

Ashoka       :         Forever, I have been a ruthless warrior.

Aurangzeb:         Forever, I have tried to please my family.

Caretaker  :         Then why did you change, O Great Lords of the world.

All                :          The world had changed but we had not. So the world called to us, ’Come let me  change  

               you ‘.

Caretaker :          How you do now, O Great Lords?

All               :           The world has changed but we have not. Come, let us now, yet again, change the world.

Hitler          :          Holocaust was my dream. I have killed millions to live my dream. Terror forced people to

                                bow before me.

Ashoka      :          The excitable and fickle ordinaries can be subtly dominated through feigned religious

propagations.

Aurangzeb:         However hard one may try to serve the people, history actuated by selfish motive,

demeans him.

King Lear  :          And I, blind to interest hidden behind untrue love, have made me succumb to my tragedy.

Caretaker :          Would you not care, O Great Lords, to return to your royal chambers and rest your tired body.

Hitler         :           No. I shall not rest me till I have exterminated those I fear and I shall not return to my chamber till the feared starts to fear me.

Ashoka      :          Greater achievement lies in expanding the empire, while distracting the mob with religion, while I kill.

Hitler         :           Kill? I have tortured and gassed thousands to death, marred their human rights, destroyed their homes and played half the world on the tip of my fingers.

Ashoka      :          But not forever. Failure seized you in the end, while I have killed and I have hidden it from common view.

Hitler         :           Greater honour is in looking the enemy in the eye before one kills.

Caretaker  :         My Lords, it is a terrible night and it shall rain any moment. You must all take shelter.

King Lear   :         “But he that hath little tiny wit

                                With heigh ho, the wind and rain

                                Must make content with his fortunes fit,

                                Though the rain it raineth every day,”

                                said the Fool once to me. I know now how true that is.

Aurangzeb:         Men cannot be trusted. Cannot be trusted. For my entire life I have wandered through the wilderness, seeking a ray of acceptance and respect, only to be pricked by bloodsucking vines.

King Lear   :         I have trusted the traitors and gave them everything. But what did they give me? Nothing. Is this what trust is? If I had ignored humility and humanity, would I have remained Lear, the Great Monarch of Britain?

Aurangzeb:         The madness of trust is something many may commit. Those who don’t, suffer. Those, who do, pine and die.  I have lived and I have grown stronger, better than any of my fathers. I have toiled for my people. But a portrait of my life has been canvassed on dark paper. Is this a failure of my hard work or a failure of my mistrust?

Caretaker :          O Great Lords! Hear me. Great men of history possessed more in them than what history displays. Their blood has passed through generation. The goodness has been drained but the bitter remains, hidden, like a passive microbe, tamed by education.

All              :            Tell us more.

Caretaker :          In the modern world, men are oppressed, dominated and machined like puppet without their knowledge or realization. The leaders condition their minds till they lose all trace of logic and do not protest. Those who dare to protest are either shamed and humiliated or their protest is forgotten in due time. Leaders fight among themselves to gain power while the ordinaries take sides, forgetting the fact that they are being neglected.

Hitler        :            It seems the world has outdone me. Their wily strategy has overpowered mine.

Caretaker :          There is more, my Lords. To the modern world, religion is more a weapon than a path to God. Religion is the cause of war. Hundreds are killed in the name of religion. War and its consequences are justified by religion. Leaders gain the sympathy of the minorities in religion and in due course, their support by promising them false prosperity.

Ashoka      :          My pride falls with this knowledge. It seems my idea of dominance is like child’s play before the ideas of the modern world.

Caretaker :          You must hold patience, my Lords. If you gaze into the mind of the ordinaries, it is no less wicked. When the self-centered mind becomes nest to twisted thoughts, trust loses its magnitude. Ingratitude, like parasite, takes control over the thought processes of men till one’s own interest becomes more significant than their parents welfare.

King Lear   :         I cannot hold my grief any more. More fathers are to suffer the same consequences as mine.

Caretaker  :         Last but not the least, men of modern times, who truly toil for humanity never gain leadership. Their greatness fades into the oblivion while fabricated evidence hegemonises the world.

Aurangzeb :        It pains me to watch that even the advanced world cannot see the logic behind my deeds for they have curtained their eyes.

All               :           Let us return to our chambers for the world has changed before we could change it.

[All four patients leave]

Caretaker  :         It is our world and the world is ours to change. The root of viral darkness is nothing but corruption. The inner demons of the human mind try to lay siege to the weak fortress of morality and soon, the walls give way to the raining blows of avarice. But our body is like a chariot, our mind the charioteer and intellect, the reins. If the wheels follow the path of light, nothing can stop us from piercing the darkness. It lies in our hands what we want to submit to -- victory to Satan or victory to enlightenment?

                                Come; let us together prevent the world from being destined to darkness. Come; let us together prevent History from repeating itself.