12/1/14 Draft

Shiv
(a post-colonial fantasy)

__________________________

By Aditi Brennan Kapil

_____________________________________________________________________________

All rights, including but not limited to professional, amateur, recording, motion picture, recitation,
lecturing, public reading, radio and television broadcasting, and the rights of translation into
foreign languages are expressly reserved. Permission for which must be secured from the author's
representative:

AO International

Antje Oegel
ph: 917 521 6640
[email protected]
 ii.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

SHIV 30's. South Asian woman.

BAPU 30's. South Asian man, Shiv's father
GERARD Late 20's, early 30's. Caucasian man
PROFESSOR an older Caucasian man, Gerard's uncle

SET:

A centrally located mattress, the kind that comes from a pull-out

couch, is on the floor.

An interior curtain leading to the gate house kitchen or the old

Skokie apartment living room.

The exterior.

An off-stage lake

The poem THE FORBIDDEN PLANET,

by Satish Kapil,
used with permission from
the author's estate.
PULSE 1- FIRST CONTACT

A mattress on the Cosmic Ocean,

waves, lapping.

SHIV
This is all I have. 60 by 80 inches of foam and fabric. This
is what I own. It’s where I begin.

(BAPU enters, we are in the

dusty apartment in Skokie,
IL. Maybe he adjusts the
mattress in place, positions
a curtain to create SHIV’s
room as separate from the
rest of the apartment, with
a lamp, and a radio, as he
passes through.)

BAPU
Look at this, Shivratri, we open up the hide-away, pull the
mattress out, and just like that we have 2 things instead of
1 thing! A couch and a bed! Not 2 weeks in America and you
have your own room with your own bed!
Cell division works in a similar fashion!

(Bapu exits)

SHIV
I took his word for it because he briefly studied
microbiology. This thin mattress, with two permanent bends
from having lived its life folded up inside a couch, might
some day sub-divide into entire universes.
I couldn't get it flat, I tried everything.
So I worked with it.

(The ocean roars to life,

wind blows, Shiv lets the
mattress ends pop up into a
boat, keeps her balance in
the storm, yells over the
noise)

It was my ship, and from its bough I could see everything.

 2.

The Mayflower, the Kon Tiki, the Mississippi River Boats,

Ralph Lauren on his yacht with all his pretty people, hippies
launching paper lanterns, galleons sinking beneath the waves,
the light of distant planets...

(Storm disappears.)

And when I returned to my small room in our 3rd floor walk-up

in Skokie, Illinois, my dad in the kitchen laboring over a
line of reluctant verse, my mom working the night shift at
the convenience store 2 blocks away, I saw clearly what I
was.
A bony brown girl sitting in a dusty room on a bent up
mattress.

BAPU (OFFSTAGE)
This poem is being very difficult, Shivratri. How are you
doing in there?

SHIV
I’m good, Bapu!

BAPU (OFFSTAGE)
Ok, I’m going to work some more.

SHIV
(to audience) And there are other lives out there.
Lives that are not mine.
Yet.

(She slips off the mattress,

a splash. Crossfade to a
different place.)

(GERARD looks out over a

lake. A sense of windswept
sunshine. It takes time for
the sound to travel, it’s a
distended conversation.)

GERARD
Hello! Out there! Hey!
Are you alright?!

SHIV (OFFSTAGE, FROM A DISTANCE)

I’m fine!
 3.

GERARD
This is private property!

SHIV (OFFSTAGE, SLIGHTLY CLOSER)

What?

GERARD
Private property!

SHIV (OFFSTAGE, CLOSER)

The lake too?

GERARD
The lake too.

(SHIV enters, soaked, pile of

clothes in hand.)

SHIV
You own the lake?

GERARD
Yes.

SHIV
Wow.

GERARD
How did you get here?

SHIV
I’m here about the job.

GERARD
What?

SHIV
The job. The posting?

(She pulls a piece of paper

out from the pile of
clothes, hands it to GERARD.
He takes it, but keeps
looking at her.)
 4.

GERARD
You’re new to the area?

SHIV
Passing through. Just here for the summer.

GERARD
You were pretty far out there.

SHIV
I’m a strong swimmer.

GERARD
Still...
(re. Posting) You got this where?

SHIV
The hardware store in town?

GERARD
It’s customary to leave the notice for other potential
applicants.

SHIV
Now why would I do that?

(GERARD looks at her. Reads

the notice.)

You’re younger than I expected.

GERARD
What?

SHIV
For a retired professor...

GERARD
What? Oh.
You’re thinking of my uncle. I’m Gerard.

SHIV
I’m happy to meet you, I’m Shiv.

GERARD
Shiv...
 5.

SHIV
Your uncle’s not here?

GERARD
No.

SHIV
Are you expecting him?

GERARD
No.
Why?

SHIV
No reason.
If I owned all of this I’d never leave.

GERARD
Why do you want the job?

SHIV
I don’t know. I saw the posting, had an impulse.
27 East Lake Road. It has a lovely ring.
The light here is amazing.

GERARD
Are you an artist?

SHIV
No.

GERARD
Ok... let me call my uncle.

SHIV
Alright.

(GERARD starts to leave)

He really doesn’t come up here?

GERARD
Not often, no.

(Beat, she seems to be

thinking this through.)
 6.

You still want the job?

SHIV
Yeah. Yeah.

GERARD
Ok, I’ll be right back.

(GERARD exits.)

SHIV
Take your time.

(Ordinary time. BAPU is

sitting on the mattress
eating pistachios from a
bowl, watching TV. It’s 2am,
they’re both tired, they
watch the TV, it’s an
ordinary conversation.)

BAPU
Hey Shivratri, can't sleep?

SHIV
Is mummy home yet?

BAPU
Not yet. Soon I'll go meet her.

SHIV
It's late.

BAPU
The Russian asked her to close. Ok, come sit here with me,
I'm watching this tv show.

(Shiv sits, curls up against

Bapu's shoulder.)

SHIV
What's it about?
 7.

BAPU
Well-meaning imperialists.
You see that one? He's the captain of a starship.

SHIV
He's bald

BAPU
Yes he is. And they go find aliens on other planets and make
contact. First contact they call it.

SHIV
Why?

BAPU
Because they ran out of aliens on earth.
Now the thing about first contact, Shivratri, is that it goes
both ways, it's everyone's first time meeting, right? But
someone has to be the alien and someone else has to be the
explorer. And do you know how they decide who is who?

SHIV
No

BAPU
It's whoever has the ship. If you come on a ship, you are the
explorer. If you're just standing around on your planet being
surprised when the strangers arrive, then you are the alien.

SHIV
So are the people on that ship the bad guys?

BAPU
Not that one, no, that bald man is very noble, we like him.
He's supposed to be French.

SHIV
He doesn't sound French.

BAPU
No.

(SHIV drops off to sleep. He

holds her, watches the
show.)
 8.

PULSE 2- BLINDING SUNLIGHT

Outside, it’s a windy afternoon,

noise and people. BAPU enters
holding a string to a kite flying
out of sight high in the sky.

BAPU
Come on, Shivratri, hurry up! Come on! You take it! You hold
it!

(SHIV runs on, takes the kite

from BAPU.)

Careful you don't bump into the other kites. It’s very polite
this American kite-flying. We must all bob around next to
each other in our own personal space apparently.

(to a man o/s) Hallo sir, hallo, very sorry, very sorry, we
will try to keep our distance! That is a very nice kite, it’s
very, is it a car?, very nice, very nice, very science
fiction, like a flying car, yah ok, thank you, thank you
bye,(to Shivratri) stay away from that one.
I should have just purchased a kite. These people don’t make
their own kites. I don’t think they should call it a kite
festival, it’s a kite showing.

SHIV
I like ours/

BAPU
You want one with princesses, like that little girl over
there. It's ok, just fly it for a bit, then we'll go home,
next year we’ll know better.

(They both watch their kite

for a moment.)

SHIV
So this is it, I just keep it up there?

BAPU
Ha! It's boring, right? You are my daughter!
It was not like this in Punjab, not so boring.
Do you want to know how we made our kites, real competition
kites, not fancy box car kites?
 9.

First we crush glass very fine, you can use coca cola bottles
or whatever is lying around/

SHIV
Why?

BAPU
Try to listen, achah? You crush the glass very fine and then
you mix it with flour and water to make a very thick paste,
understand?

Then I would go to the rooftop of our house, we had a very

big house, biggest in the village, built on land given to my
grand-father by the Maharaja of Nambar as a reward for
writing a ghazal. Over 100 years ago he lined up all his
students to sing this ghazal in celebration of the Maharaja’s
visit to his gurukul. And it was so beautiful that as the
final note rang out into the desert air, the Maharaja
pronounced all the land upon which they stood to belong to
the great man who had composed this ghazal. This was very
precious land, right by the railroad, it became ours.

So on kite-making day, I went to the roof with a bucket of my

glass paste and a very long string, and I carefully soaked
the string in the paste to coat it, very carefully, very
slowly, so the paste covered all sides of the string, and as
I pulled it out of the bucket I stretched it across the roof
in long lines, back and forth, back and forth, to dry. I
would cover the whole rooftop, my mother could not do laundry
all that day or the next!
Then after the string is dry and stiff, I take a spool and I
roll the string up, very careful not to touch it with my
fingers. Why do you think?

SHIV
The glass?

BAPU
The glass! The string is thick, and stiff, and sharp as cut
glass now! I tie one end to my kite. A more beautiful kite
than this one, I made beautiful kites back then, for hours I
would labor over them.
And I always tested my kite the night before the competition,
not everyone did this, it was an art for me.
 10.

I flew it very high to make sure there were no catches on the

spool, that the string was not too heavy, that the kite was
light in the wind and easy in the air.

These American kites would never survive a competition. Look

at that one. It is very fancy, it can do only one thing, hang
there like a target.

Then on the day of the competition all the boys gathered in

the desert, just like all these people here, a big crowd, and
you send your kite into the sky, and when they signal to
start, this is what you do: you fly your kite beneath another
boy's kite, slowly, slowly, and then the moment when your
strings touch... you release your spool quick quick, and your
kite shoots into the sky like a rocket! And if yours is
faster, you will cut the other boy's string, and like a dead
thing his kite’s head will fall from the sky to the ground,
while your kite soars, soars, soars!
And you do it like this again, and again, until you are the
only kite flying in the sky, and that is how you win! I was
crazy for kites! The sky was my domain!
Ok, you're flying it ok by yourself, I'm going to get some
snacks. I'll be back, achah?

(BAPU exits, SHIV attaches

the string, creating a
clothes line. The Lake. SHIV
hangs linens from a basket,
possible silhouettes behind
the sheets. GERARD
approaches.)

GERARD
We have a drier.

(SHIV looks up. There is a

quiet stillness to this
place. The wind blows
through the laundry. Plenty
of air between the lines,
they’re falling into each
other through silence as
well as through words.)

SHIV
I know, I prefer to air dry. I hope you don’t mind?
 11.

GERARD
No.

SHIV
Do you have everything you need? At the house?

GERARD
Yes.

SHIV
And your guests?

GERARD
They’re fine.

SHIV
Good. They seem to be having fun.

GERARD
Yeah.

(SHIV continues to hang

laundry, GERARD watches.
Air. Wind.)

GERARD
Why do you prefer to air-dry?

(SHIV stops.)

SHIV
Fresh air? Sun? I don’t know...

I like how air-dried linens smell? I like how my mind

wanders.

GERARD
Hm

SHIV
You don’t like it?

GERARD
No, that sounds good.
 12.

SHIV
Ok... I'll continue then?

GERARD
Sure.

(Shiv continues.)

GERARD
Isn't it time-consuming?

SHIV
What?

GERARD
Air-drying?

SHIV
Yes, it is. But what is time for, if not to be consumed?

GERARD
Yeah... I guess...

SHIV
Are you sure you don't need something?

GERARD
No... I don’t know...

SHIV
Well let me know.

GERARD
Ok.

SHIV
Your guests might be missing you.

GERARD
They’re enjoying their time away from the city.

SHIV
And you?

GERARD
I’ll probably enjoy it more once they leave.
 13.

SHIV
So you’re hiding in the laundry?

GERARD
For a bit.

SHIV
I like the quiet here too.
Maybe that’s why I like air-drying, it creates a kind of
curtain to the world.
And I like how it catches the wind... like sails on an ocean,
or...

GERARD
Or what?

SHIV
I have this childhood memory of saris drying on a beach.
Longer sheets, more colorful, but that same feeling... of
wind catching sails...
My mother used to take us down to the water, we’d play while
she dried her saris in the sun with all her friends, long
narrow swathes of shining silk as far as the eye could see.

GERARD
Sounds beautiful.

SHIV
It was.
And private, in a strange sort of way. The lengths of fabric
made all these passages and rooms. The women talked all
morning, and my friends and I would hide where we weren't
supposed to, careful not to kick sand onto the saris, and
we’d sit there... turning pink and purple and gold in the
fabric sunlight, like creatures made of air, or water, or
some reflective substance.

GERARD
Does your mom still air-dry?

SHIV
No. Machines are faster.

(Sounds off-stage.)

Your friends are looking for you.

 14.

GERARD
What about your father, what did he do?

(Beat. She doesn’t answer.)

SHIV
Why does your uncle own this property if he never comes here?

GERARD
It’s been in the family since my great-grandfather came over.
Actually, your gate house is the original homestead, he built
the big house later. After his ship came in.

SHIV
Literally?

GERARD
And metaphorically. He made a fortune importing luxury goods,
silks, spices, from the east. Family operation.
They raised a couple of generations here, before we all
scattered.

SHIV
It’s special to you.

GERARD
What?

SHIV
This place. Maybe that’s why you don’t like sharing it.

GERARD
Why do you ask about the Professor?

SHIV
No reason. Just curious.

GERARD
I thought maybe you knew his work?

SHIV
No, sorry. Should I?

(No. Pause)
 15.

GERARD
I hope you’re comfortable... sometimes the power in the gate
house is erratic, you can always come up if you need
anything.

SHIV
I’m fine.

GERARD
There’s a generator at the big house, supposed to cover for
power outages, but it doesn’t always make it to the gate
house, it’s just the area here, we’re up high...

SHIV
It’s been fine.

GERARD
But you have flashlights, that sort of thing, for safety...?

SHIV
Yes, I do.

GERARD
That’s good...

(SHIV finishes the laundry,

picks up her basket, looks
at GERARD.)

You're finished?

SHIV
Yes.

GERARD
I’m going to look pretty foolish standing here in the laundry
once you leave.

(SHIV smiles.)

SHIV
Yes.

(GERARD smiles. The sheets

billow. It’s a beautiful
day.)
 16.

GERARD
I’ll head back then.

SHIV
Ok.

(GERARD exits.)

(SHIV looks up at the kite,

detaches the clothes line,
flies her kite again. BAPU
enters. Ordinary Time.)

BAPU
I have chips.

(They stand beneath the

fluttering sheets, eating)

I would fly my kite so far it was only a speck in the

distance.
Or sometimes I would fly it just across the street, send love
notes to the police chief's daughter.

SHIV
Really?

BAPU
Words pieced together. This is how I became a poet, trying to
seduce this girl in a window on a scrap of paper this small
tied to the tail of a kite. You have to be very particular
with your words when you have only so much space.

SHIV
Did she write back?

BAPU
Never! But she received my notes, and she peeked out through
her window, just a smile from behind the curtain. That is the
way to seduce a man, not like these American women.
(He points) Like that one over there. With the short skirt
and the big teeth.

(SHIV sees the woman o/s,

laughs, BAPU smiles.)
 17.

If you want to know how to catch a man's interest, Shivratri,

that is not the way. Too much information. It is like a poem,
you have to leave something to the imagination.

Should we reel in our ugly kite, or cut it? It’s probably

against the rules here to cut the string, it would disrupt
all those other pretty store-bought kites.

It is your decision, what do you want to do?

(SHIV hesitates)

Come now, Shivratri. We’re not dainty little decorative

kites, you and me. We are fighting kites. What do you say?

SHIV
Cut it.

BAPU
That’s right! That’s my girl. You and me. We’re a team,
Shivratri. No one can take that away from us.

(BAPU pulls a blade, cuts the

string. The laundry flies
away.)
 18.

PULSE 3- FREEZING RAIN

City, evening, cars going by, there

is a stadium concert beyond a wall.
But out here it’s just cars and
people hustling, black market
tickets and goods. BAPU and SHIV
are pushing, searching for someone,
they carry unsold t-shirts and head
bands. It’s cold, dirty, crowded,
noisy, and freezing rain drizzles.

BAPU
(to SHIV) These T-shirts are just as real as the ones inside
the stadium! Say handmade by Indian artisans!

SHIV
Knock-offs.

BAPU
Those girls from your school are very snobbish, I don’t want
you spending time with them! They are confusing you.
Look around you.
These people have plenty of money. It is our job to take some
of it, that is how the world works. No one else is on our
side, it’s just you and me!
Are you ashamed? Look at me, are you ashamed?
Who’s to say what is real, ah? What they say, or what I say?
These T-shirts are just as real as the ones inside. It’s just
fabric and ink. We sell them the story, it is their choice if
they want to buy it, no one is forcing them!
This is art.

SHIV
I thought we didn’t care about material things.

BAPU
That’s Buddhism, we are Hindus. What are they teaching you in
these schools?
Ok, ok, this way, let’s find our tickets! Damn Patel!

(BAPU Exits, sounds of

honking, traffic, SHIV hangs
back, miserable, hating
everything. Then we’re at
the Lake. Evening.
 19.

GERARD enters carrying

fishing poles. SHIV is still
shivering from the cold.)

GERARD
Shiv?

(SHIV turns, she’s not

entirely present, her mind
is still in the freezing
drizzle outside the concert.
Then she’s back.)

You're cold.
You've been swimming again.

SHIV
Did you need something?

GERARD
No.

SHIV
At the house?

GERARD
No. I just... actually I came by to see if you want to go
fishing.

SHIV
Fishing?

GERARD
Yeah. I don’t know if you’ve been. I thought you might want
to... you're shaking, you should get inside.

SHIV
I'm fine...

GERARD
You should...
Come on, do you have a blanket in there...?

(GERARD enters SHIV’s space,

finds a towel or something
on the mattress.)
 20.

SHIV
I'm fine.

GERARD
Dry your hair. Here.

SHIV
Thank you.

(SHIV towels, GERARD looks

around the room. Pause.)

GERARD
I thought this was furnished

SHIV
What?

GERARD
I thought the gate house was furnished.
We’d be happy to provide you with any furniture you need...

SHIV
Oh, it is furnished. I moved everything into the back room.

And I brought my own bed.

(GERARD looks at the

mattress.)

It’s mine. I’m accustomed to it.

I hope that’s ok.

GERARD
You could use a drink of something. Do you have anything?

(GERARD disappears into the

kitchen)

SHIV
I don’t... I’m fine.

It just got in my skin. It’ll leave the way it came.

That's what my mother used to say when I came home frozen.

 21.

GERARD (OFFSTAGE)
Frozen from doing what?

SHIV
Helping my dad. With things.

GERARD (OFFSTAGE)
What did your dad do?

SHIV
He was a modernist poet.

(GERARD re-enters with

bourbon and a mug. beat.)

GERARD
Wow.

SHIV
And sometimes he worked in merchandising.

GERARD
You have bourbon.

SHIV
I really don’t need...

(GERARD pours into the mug)

GERARD
He sounds exciting.

SHIV
He was.

GERARD
Where are your parents now?

SHIV
Dead.

GERARD
I’m an orphan too.

SHIV
Recent?
 22.

GERARD
No, I was ten. The Professor raised me. You?

SHIV
A few years back I hear. We weren’t in contact.

GERARD
I’m sorry.
Do you mind if I have one? A drink?

SHIV
Go ahead.

(GERARD pours himself a

drink, takes a sip)

GERARD
Bourbon

SHIV
Preferred by poets and prophets. Would you like to sit?

(GERARD looks at the

mattress)

GERARD
That’s not a bed.

SHIV
It is what you make it.

GERARD
You make it a bed?

SHIV
Sometimes.

GERARD
I’ll just take the edge here… (he sits) Ok…

(Pause.)

SHIV
Your friends are gone.
 23.

GERARD
Yeah, it’s nice.

SHIV
That’s really ungracious.

GERARD
I didn’t say it to them.

SHIV
What did you say to them?

GERARD
Come back soon?

SHIV
That’s sad

GERARD
It is, it’s very sad

(Pause.)

You’ve stopped shaking.

SHIV
I’m fine.

GERARD
Why were you shaking?

SHIV
Adrenaline.

GERARD
You must swim pretty hard.

SHIV
I have far to go.

So it’s just the two of us here now? For how long?

The summer?

GERARD
Could be.
 24.

SHIV
Why do you need a caretaker? There’s nothing to do.

GERARD
That’s kind of the point, it’s not like the job pays well.
Most people do it as a paid summer vacation, college
students, retirees. The Professor just likes the rooms aired
out and linens stocked in case he comes up.

SHIV
Which he doesn’t do.

GERARD
He might. But you should relax. Take a vacation. Remember
lazy summers as a kid?

SHIV
No. My dad usually had some project.

GERARD
Writing?

SHIV
Yeah. Life of a poet.

GERARD
My uncle was in publishing for a while.

SHIV
What kind of publishing?

GERARD
He had an independent label, ran it out of here actually.
He’d have meetings at the house.
I’d escape to the lake, bring a book and a sandwich, you can
spend the day drifting out there if you put your mind to it.

SHIV
Did you go on adventures?

GERARD
By myself? Not really. Did you?

SHIV
Yeah
(Lights flicker. Pause.)
 25.

GERARD
Does that happen a lot?

SHIV
Yes.

GERARD
I’ll talk to someone.

SHIV
Who?

GERARD
I’m not sure

SHIV
It’s ok. I work with it.

GERARD
You work with it?

SHIV
Power outages are not uncommon in my parts.

GERARD
I’ll look into it.

SHIV
Ok.

GERARD
Ok.
(beat)

So what’s so special about this mattress?

SHIV
It's imbued with magical properties.

GERARD
You’re making fun.

SHIV
I’m not
 26.

GERARD
So it’s imbued with magical properties.

SHIV
Yes.

GERARD
What does it do?

SHIV
Travels through space and time.

GERARD
I can see why you’d want to hold on to it then.

(Smile. Pause.)

You should come fishing.

SHIV
It’s dark.

GERARD
It’s dusk. The house isn’t even up yet.

SHIV
Up?

GERARD
It lights up every evening at nine. The Professor put it on a
timer years ago. That way people don’t know when it’s
unoccupied.
And if we’re out on the water it’s like a beacon, brings us
home.
If you ever get lost, just wait for the house to come up.

SHIV
Ok.
(GERARD sees the radio, picks
it up.)

GERARD
Wow. Look at that. That’s an archaic piece of technology...
does it work?
 27.

SHIV
Yes. Leave it.

GERARD
What?

SHIV
Just... don’t... just leave it. I don’t turn it on.

(GERARD puts the radio down)

GERARD
Ok...

SHIV
It was my dad’s.

GERARD
Ok.

SHIV
Sorry.

GERARD
Don’t be.
(beat)

SHIV
Did you know that Indians invented the flying machine?

GERARD
I know that they didn’t.

SHIV
It’s in the Ramayana. Which I’m pretty sure predates your
entire country. Instructions for making a Vimana, “a great
flying bird.” Designed to run on a mercury engine, which sets
a whirlwind in motion, so that a man sitting inside might
travel a great distance in the sky.

GERARD
A whirlwind?

SHIV
The Vimana can vertically ascend, vertically descend, move
slanting forward and backward...
 28.

GERARD
Like a helicopter.

SHIV
Exactly.

GERARD
Impressive. Did you know that in America we invented the
actual helicopter?

SHIV
You probably stole our research.

GERARD
I don’t think so.

SHIV
I do.

GERARD
We might have outsourced the engineering.

(SHIV laughs)

SHIV
That’s good

(Lights change, the big house

has come on.)

SHIV
Big house is up.

GERARD
9pm.

SHIV
It’s beautiful.

GERARD
Yeah.

SHIV
Do you live like this all the time?
 29.

GERARD
No. I have a job. I don’t like it much, but it’s fine. Not
worth thinking about, not out here.
You should sleep in, with just me here there’s not much for
you to do.
Are you ok?

SHIV
I’m suddenly tired

GERARD
Yeah, that happens here. I’ll go.

Good night.

SHIV
Good night

(GERARD leaves quietly. SHIV

lies down, holds the radio,
fiddles with it, doesn’t
turn it on.)

(BAPU appears at the curtain.

SHIV doesn’t want to talk to
him. Ordinary time is losing
its charm.)

BAPU
Shivratri? Sorry about this evening, Patel said he had
tickets for us. Next concert I will get you in. I’ll do it
personally, I won’t rely on Patel.

SHIV
That’s ok

BAPU
Come on now

SHIV
I’m fine

BAPU
Your mummy says I froze you, you’re not frozen are you?
 30.

SHIV
No.

BAPU
No. I told her that, we’re tough, you and I. You should tell
her, she won’t stop nagging at me.

SHIV
Ok.

BAPU
Everything will be very different when I am published in
America, and you are the daughter of a famous poet,
Shivratri. No more of this running around doing bullshit
business.
I’ve been invited to the house of a great man, you know. My
big American break! He is a very important publisher, if he
likes me, my luck is made! This will be very good for us, ok?
Ok?

SHIV
Yeah

BAPU
Ok.
Hey, listen, that radio takes batteries, use it sparingly, or
your mother will be angry, you hear?

SHIV
Yes.

BAPU
Ok, you’re tired.
Good night.

(BAPU exits. SHIV drifts.)

 31.

PULSE 4- WIND

SHIV in her room. Sound of voices

beyond the curtain divider,
laughter, a small gathering.

BAPU (OFFSTAGE)
Shivratri, come here! Come in here!

(SHIV goes to the curtain,

BAPU faces upstage/offstage,
entertains his friends.
Sound of clinking glasses,
voices.)

BAPU
(loud, intoxicated, to his guests) My work is too modern for
them! If there is no traditional form, no rhyme, they don’t
know what to do with it! It is the curse of the exceptional
human being, nah? (to Shiv) Shivratri, come in here/

(Now they’re both facing

updtage/offstage beyond the
curtain.)

SHIV
What is it, Bapu-ji. (to the off-stage guests) Namaskarum.

BAPU
My daughter, the American! Ok, listen to this- Shivratri, say
'room'!

SHIV
Sorry?

BAPU
Say ‘room’! Say the word ‘room’!

SHIV
Room.

BAPU
You hear that? It sounds like 'woom'! ‘Woom’! I cannot say it
like that, can any of you say it like that? One more time!
 32.

SHIV
Room.

BAPU
‘Woom’!
This is everything!
This is why Shivratri is an American and you and I are only
Indian! If I could talk like that, I would be the one
publishing magazines!
I tell you, if I could write my poetry in English I would, no
hesitation! There is no money in Punjabi or in Hindi, we have
been left behind in these minor languages, it is best we
realize it now!

SHIV
Bapu-ji, can I...?

BAPU
Ok, Shivratri, you can go.

(SHIV returns to her room,

leaving BAPU on the other
side of the curtain.)

BAPU (OFFSTAGE)
This is why we came to America, for that one- so she can
break with the past and become one of them! That’s who has
the chance, the children.

(SHIV tries to turn on the

light. Nothing.)

Writing in Punjabi is a waste of time, didn’t I tell you!

Better not to write at all! Here, look at this-

(Sounds of group shuffling

and shifting, voices moving
away from SHIV’s room)

SHIV
Bapu. My light is out...?

(GERARD appears at the door.

Lake time.)
 33.

GERARD
Hey

SHIV
Hey.

GERARD
Your power’s out?

SHIV
Yeah.

GERARD
How long?

SHIV
I don’t know. It’s fine.

(beat)

You coming in?

(GERARD enters.)

GERARD
We can go up to the big house.

(SHIV gets a flashlight)

SHIV
No.
This is fun.

(She pins him in light)

GERARD
Quit.

SHIV
My father grew up in Punjab. Before the green revolution when
it was all sand as far as the eye could see. He’d tell this
story about how some nights it would storm, you could hear
the wind and sand whipping against the village from every
side. When you woke in the morning, the land had shifted in
the night.
 34.

It was like the topography of the world had changed, familiar

hills and valleys gone, new ones have appeared out of
nowhere. You stayed in one place, but the map of the world
changed.
And you had to go out and discover, and map, the world anew.
For yourself.

(She switches off the

flashlight, leaving only the
wash from the house. In the
dark she makes her way over
to him in the dark,
discovering the topography.
Kisses him. SHIV turns the
flashlight back on.)

Am I overstepping? I haven’t had many friends.

GERARD
No.
(beat)

SHIV
I don’t know what to do now.

GERARD
Me neither.

SHIV
Do you want to go fishing?

GERARD
It’s dark.

SHIV
We’ll take my ship.

GERARD
Yours?

SHIV
(re. Mattress) Get on.

GERARD
Ok... funny ship...
 35.

SHIV
It's modernist. No structure, no rhyme, and the reviews are
suboptimal.

GERARD
Are you sure it’ll float?

SHIV
Hard to say. You scared?
Come on. It’ll be fun.

(GERARD takes her hand, steps

on the mattress.)

Watch your step

GERARD
I’m trying

SHIV
Hold tight

(They hold on to each other

while around them the wind
picks up. Billowing sails
and helicopter parts and
kite strings, however a
modernist ship would sail
the cosmic ocean. Then ocean
and stars.)

SHIV
My lake.

GERARD
Here?

SHIV
Want to do some fishing?

GERARD
You can do that?

SHIV
Ain't nothing but a cosmic ocean-
 36.

(They sit together on the

raft with fishing poles.
They laugh. They drift.)

GERARD
So you own a cosmic lake?

SHIV
I do. I own all kinds of imaginary things.
What are you smiling about?

GERARD
I don’t know.

SHIV
What?

GERARD
This is fun.

SHIV
This is how I spent my summers.

(beat)

(re. fish) You getting anything?

GERARD
No.

SHIV
Pisces are notoriously elusive. But worth it.
Nothing like a constellation for breakfast.

GERARD
If you catch one, do you throw it back?

SHIV
What?

GERARD
The Pisces?

SHIV
Why?
 37.

GERARD
Because it’s a constellation? It’s, I don’t know... up here
for everyone to enjoy?

SHIV
What’s wrong with you?

GERARD
I don’t know

SHIV
If I catch one, I’m eating it.

GERARD
Alright fine.

SHIV
That’s right.

GERARD
Devourer.

SHIV
And don’t you forget it. Throw it back...

(They drift. It’s nice.)

GERARD
Are you ever tempted to stay up here?

(Beat. She watches him.)

SHIV
I used to shoplift a lot.

GERARD
Shoplift what?

SHIV
A lighter, a lipstick... dumb things. Shiny things.

GERARD
Why?
 38.

SHIV
For the rush. The rush of... power.
There would be this glow around something sitting on a shelf,
and it would be mine. And not in exchange for $3, just mine.
It mattered that I take it, and not pay for it.
Things that glow, they can’t be purchased or they lose their
power. They have to be taken.

GERARD
That makes some kind of sense.

SHIV
You’re shiny. Like a bic lighter, or the gold foil on a
chocolate bar.

GERARD
Yeah?

SHIV
It’s the hair.

(Smile. Light bulb flickers,

light in gate house comes
back on, and they’re back on
earth, quick and abrupt.
They wince, cosmos
vanishes.)

SHIV
Oh ow.

GERARD
I really will have to talk to someone about that.

SHIV
Bright...

GERARD
Shut your eyes

(SHIV squints at him. It’s

awkward and intimate and way
too bright.)

SHIV
Sorry you didn't catch any fish.
 39.

GERARD
That's ok.

SHIV
Hope you’re not disappointed.

GERARD
I'm not disappointed.

(A kiss.)

It’s really late.

SHIV
Yeah

GERARD
I should go.

SHIV
Probably
(beat)

GERARD
Do you want me to stay?

SHIV
Yes.

GERARD
Ok.

SHIV
Ok.

BAPU (OFFSTAGE)
27 East Lake Road... 27 East Lake Road...

(SHIV snaps out of the moment

with GERARD, she has to go.
BAPU’s coming.)

SHIV
Um I...
 40.

GERARD
What?

SHIV
I have, I...

BAPU (OFFSTAGE)
Shivratri?

SHIV
...there’s...

GERARD
What?

SHIV
I can’t.

GERARD
That’s ok. I mean/

BAPU (OFFSTAGE)
Shivratri, are you sleeping?

SHIV
I have things. I can’t. I’m sorry.

GERARD
Ok

SHIV
Just

GERARD
No, it’s fine, I’ll see you tomorrow?

SHIV
Yes. Tomorrow. Tomorrow.

BAPU (OFFSTAGE)
Hey, why won’t you answer?

GERARD
Ok. Tomorrow.
 41.

BAPU (OFFSTAGE)
Shivratri?

(GERARD exits, as BAPU

enters, clutching a paper in
one hand, a drink in the
other. Ordinary Time. SHIV
didn’t want to come back,
but here she is.)

BAPU
Hey. Our guests have departed. But not before Patel drank all
of my bourbon.

SHIV
Did you have a nice time?

(BAPU goes to SHIV’s

mattress, flops down on it,
drunk.)

BAPU
As much as one can. It's just killing the time, isn't it all
Shivratri? One has to make what happiness one can. That's all
there is really.

SHIV
Are you happy?

BAPU
Not really. Not at all.
I’m not invited back, Shivratri. To the house on the lake.
It’s a great shame. I was going to take you with me next
time. You would have liked it. But now... now there is no
next time.

SHIV
That’s too bad.

BAPU
I have been rejected. By the man who is in charge of
everything, of what stories are told and not told, and mine
is not wanted it seems. I am not invited. I did not impress.

I'm falling through space, Shivratri, can’t find purchase

anywhere. Will you rescue me?
 42.

SHIV
Ok

BAPU
(re. Letter) 27 East Lake Road... even the address is shiny.
There are two places in this world, Shivratri.
There is here, this mattress.
And then there is this place, this 27 East Lake Road, the
seat of power.

I will mount this letter on the refrigerator, Shivratri. It's

good to have the necessary coordinates, nah? To forbidden
land? One never know when those will come in handy. For
adventurers like us. Isn’t that right?

What have you been doing in here?

SHIV
Nothing.

BAPU
Have you been dreaming? Your imagination is the best place in
the world, Shivratri. Why didn't we move there instead? Do
you think you could get me a visa?

SHIV
Maybe.

BAPU
Well, you decide, it's your world.

You want a story?

SHIV
(No) Ok.

BAPU
Ok. Once upon a time, India was a spaceship floating across
the universe. For centuries, none could tempt her away from
her independence, until one day, her captain answered a
distress call from a distant planet, and with a final thrust
of her heavy pelvis, she crashed into The Planet Where
Everything Is Forbidden.
When she came to, she saw that a great mountain had formed in
the impact. She was trapped in the wreckage.
 43.

As she stared out over the unfamiliar landscape, she saw

creatures approaching, the unfamiliar inhabitants of this new
planet, scurrying toward her, electric beings made of light.
And as her captain climbed up a nearby tree, helpless against
the scurrying masses, India was pillaged for scrap, her crew
absorbed by the light-beings, all her electricity diverted to
the west. And now they have bright, bright, lights, and we
have power outages.

I’ll make you a deal, Shivratri.

You get our ship off that planet with that imagination of
yours. Used, stained with blood, bodily fluids, who knows
what else, but that’s how we get it for cheap, right?
And we’ll get it all cleaned up. We have the whole Indian
Ocean, that should be enough water.
Now we just need a great deal of soap...

SHIV
(Soft) Ok...

BAPU
This is what we are, Shivratri. This mattress. This raft.
Brooked by mountain, ocean, separated by ridged plateau and
two dozen languages.
We’ll get it space-worthy... then take to the sky again.

Has there been any response to our distress call yet, Number
One?

SHIV
No.

BAPU
When’s the last time you checked? Come on, check.

(SHIV picks up the radio,

tries to get a station,
static.)

BAPU
Tune it in.

(She tries, more static)

Come on now, tune it in.

 44.

SHIV
I’m trying

BAPU
Try harder.

SHIV
I am trying, it’s broken.

BAPU
You don’t have the touch, give it to me

(an irritated scuffle over

the radio)

SHIV
It’s a broken radio, it’s not working, maybe the crash or
whatever...

BAPU
Here, give it to me.

SHIV
Stop.

BAPU
Let me-!

(BAPU barely touches it,

music plays)

Ah-haaaa! What do you say to that?

SHIV
Luck

BAPU
Your Bapu has the touch! I am one with the universe, catching
waves from the air, shooting them into that radio to make
music for YOU! This is why you are Number 1, but I am the
Captain!

SHIV
(It is pretty funny...) Ok...
 45.

BAPU
Come on Shivratri, get up! Get up and dance!

(SHIV smiles. They dance.)

 46.

PULSE 5- REALITY

SHIV waits with a backpack in front

of school. BAPU arrives late, a car
drops him off and then departs.

BAPU
Ok, sorry, sorry I'm late, let's go!

SHIV
Who is that in the car?

BAPU
Just some woman I know, she offered to give me a ride since I
was late to pick you up. School was good?

SHIV
Is she the woman from the kite festival?

BAPU
The what? Oh sure, the kite festival, that’s right. I forgot
you’ve seen her before. Yes, that’s right. She’s a very nice
lady actually.
Ok, let's go.

SHIV
Were you having a meeting?

BAPU
No. Yes, earlier, but it’s over now.
You have everything you need? I'm sorry I'm late, were you
worried?

SHIV
It's ok. It's nice she gave you a ride.

BAPU
Yes. Shivratri, it's better if you don't tell your mother
about this business meeting, in case nothing comes from it,
you know. These business meetings, you never know. No use
talking about it. It’s bad luck. Ok?

SHIV
Ok.
 47.

BAPU
Come on, let's go.

SHIV
Her car is funny.

BAPU
It's a classic. An old fancy car. You know, rich people.

(BAPU exits. The Lake. GERARD

enters with the PROFESSOR,
holding a miniature red
Pontiac.)

PROFESSOR
Money thrown away. Look at this stamp. Barely legible! Now
the real ones, I'll show you back at the house, have a clear
stamp, contoured, deeply set/

GERARD
So it's a forgery.

PROFESSOR
In brief, yes, I mean it's not that he lied exactly, but when
you say ‘Minister Delux’ to a serious collector, we expect
for instance a 1954 Pontiac Star Chief, this Amertoy is
nowhere near the quality, look at this plating/

GERARD
Shiv! Hey!

PROFESSOR
It’s a disgrace

SHIV
Hello.

GERARD
Look who came up.

PROFESSOR
Ah, this must be Shiv.
I hear you've been taking exemplary care of the place, Gerard
has nothing but good things to say!
 48.

SHIV
Professor, I’m afraid I wasn’t expecting you, I haven’t
prepared your room...

PROFESSOR
Nonsense, I require no special attentions, my room is perfect
as it is. Tell me, are you comfortable in the gate house...?

SHIV
Very, but I should go check on/

GERARD
(to Shiv) The house is fine, there’s nothing that needs doing

PROFESSOR
... the power is erratic, we've tried to address the issue,
but it's complicated by our remote location...

SHIV
(to Gerard) Are you sure?

PROFESSOR
Quite certain, we call in an electrician every decade or so,
and it’s always the same story.

SHIV
Oh, no, I didn’t mean/

PROFESSOR
Yes I know, my dear, please do not concern yourself, I like
to tease

GERARD
(to Shiv) The house is fine

PROFESSOR
It is, and I would much prefer the pleasure of your company,
to a spare set of towels. Won’t you humor me?

SHIV
Yes. Thank you. Sorry. Yes.

PROFESSOR
Do you know I spent some time in India as a boy, my father
had business connections on the subcontinent. What part do
your people hail from?
 49.

SHIV
Punjab

PROFESSOR
Punjab! Gorgeous place! Land of the five rivers! In this very
car we traveled across the length of Punjab, Gerard!
Well, not in this car, a full-sized version.

GERARD
(to SHIV) It's a knock-off.

PROFESSOR
... a fully functional, authentic, vehicle...

GERARD
He's upset about it.

PROFESSOR
I'm a collector. Gerard does not comprehend whimsy.

GERARD
It's true.

PROFESSOR
It was the Everest trip, you remember Gerard?

GERARD
No, I wasn’t born yet.

PROFESSOR
The story, you remember the story. My father took me and my
brothers, you must have heard the story/

GERARD
Have I?

PROFESSOR
We went to see Mount Everest one summer, traveled by a car
very similar to this fraudulent vehicle, there's a distant
family connection, not to the car, to Everest/

GERARD
Oh, right, I do remember
 50.

PROFESSOR
I knew you would.
(to SHIV) Our name, Everett, from Everest, the man who named
Mount Everest, some colonel in the British army, who never
even saw the place, he was a topographer or something/

GERARD
Your logo, you told that story all the time/

PROFESSOR
Everest's shadow, that's right. (to Shiv) This doesn't
interest you my dear/

SHIV
The logo on your magazine. I've seen it.

(beat)

GERARD
You have?

PROFESSOR
You've seen my little magazine? Well!
It’s been out of print for over a decade.

SHIV
My father was a subscriber.

PROFESSOR
Really! Poet?

SHIV
Yes.

PROFESSOR
Now how about that! Did you know this, Gerard?

GERARD
That... yes...

SHIV
He was quite famous in India. The first Punjabi modernist.
 51.

PROFESSOR
The first? That’s something. My nephew tells me nothing, this
is not a piece of information that slips your mind Gerard,
how was I not told?

GERARD
I didn’t think of it.

PROFESSOR
Tell me more about his work, my dear.

SHIV
It was ground-breaking, all about literary independence from
the west, very anti-establishment. Gandhi-ji got our land
back, and now it was up to the poets to get our minds and our
souls back.

PROFESSOR
I had no idea that we had a descendant of literary royalty on
the grounds, this brightens my day no end.

GERARD
I mentioned to Shiv earlier that you published from here,
from the lake house. The magazine.

PROFESSOR
Yes, we had many a gathering on this very lake! I didn't want
the university getting involved in my little sideline, so I
ran the whole operation from up here. Those were the days!
That logo was my homage, do you know as a boy I had this
fancy that the outline of Mount Everest and India were like
mirror images or shadows, and I had an artist draw that
silhouette of India as a shadow of the great mountain for the
magazine, it was evocative I thought. My one and only foray
into the visual arts!
So many of the great Indian writers passed through these
gates. Gerard met all of them as a boy, but he doesn't
remember.
I had hoped they'd have an influence on him.

GERARD
They did.

PROFESSOR
A deeper influence.
 52.

GERARD
Ok

PROFESSOR
Gerard is my accountant, did he tell you that? I'm spread
thin, he thinks I need caretaking.

GERARD
Just your finances.

PROFESSOR
How my own nephew chose such an unimaginative profession is a
mystery to me, I surrounded him with art, and he chooses a
career of columns and order.

GERARD
I like columns and order. Not everyone is destined to be
exceptional.

PROFESSOR
No, but you had every advantage, it was not an unreasonable
expectation.

GERARD
I'm ok.

PROFESSOR
Is your father still living, my dear?

SHIV
No.

PROFESSOR
I’m sorry to hear that. So many of the greats of that
generation are gone now. What was his name?

SHIV
He didn’t write much after we moved here. He had dreamed of a
larger audience than writing in Punjabi had to offer, but as
it turned out, English wasn’t his language.

PROFESSOR
I would love to hear a little something, even in Punjabi.

GERARD
I would too.
 53.

SHIV
I don’t know, I wouldn’t feel appropriate. I’m intruding on
your time together.

GERARD
You’re not.

PROFESSOR
Nothing of the sort. But if you’d rather not...

GERARD
Shiv’s being modest. I’m sure she’s got something memorized.

(beat)

SHIV
I remember one poem he had translated into English.
It’s called “The Forbidden Planet”

(SHIV recites.)

On the new planet

It was the only tree
And that too forbidden
No one may climb it.
It was ordained
Before you climb up
You must climb down the tree.

The English doesn’t quite do it justice...

PROFESSOR
Not at all, that’s lovely...

GERARD
Thank you. It is.

PROFESSOR
It’s a paradox, isn’t it? Wonderful imagery... planets and
trees... fascinating

GERARD
Very

SHIV
He was a fan of American science fiction.
 54.

PROFESSOR
It’s very familiar actually

SHIV
He wrote a great deal of/

PROFESSOR
Do you know, I think I remember him- wasn’t he here at the
lake one summer? It would have been your second summer here,
Gerard?

GERARD
I don’t know, I was twelve.

PROFESSOR
(sincerely enthusiastic, those days were the best) We called
him the science fiction modernist! His work was littered with
planets and robots and the like, there was a rather unkind
joke that he took the ‘modernist’ title too literally. Poet
humor.
I remember him, an interesting voice. But trapped in a sort
of bitterness, and post-colonial literature had moved on.
With the successes of so many exceptional Indian writers, a
poet writing about what is forbidden to him, it felt dated,
trapped in the past.

GERARD
Didn’t alter his feeling on the matter.

PROFESSOR
Well of course not! But if anyone can understand the true
nature of colonialism, it is the Indian. As you must know, my
dear, given your name?

SHIV
I should (go)...

PROFESSOR
You were named for Shiva, were you not? The Destroyer god?
Destruction for the purpose of rebirth?
Colonialism was an act of destruction, there is no denying,
but out of this was born modern India, in all her glory!

SHIV
She’s still in labor, but we expect a birth announcement any
decade now.
 55.

PROFESSOR
You have his wit. Still, one can only ever really move
forward, ever forward, such is the nature of temporal reality
isn’t it, as I am reminded daily with each new ache, creak,
and grey hair. And so the cycle goes on!
I hadn’t heard that your father died, I’m sorry... your
mother still lives in the Midwest?

SHIV
Illinois.

PROFESSOR
Well we should probably get back to the house.
(re. Pontiac) Piece of junk, this.
My mother preferred things in miniature, I may have inherited
her pathology. In India, she had our servants trained to
serve miniature rotis, flustered our local guests no end,
these tiny rotis and chapattis. She collected miniature Taj
Mahals, my father collected small businesses, I collect model
automobiles, we miniaturized the sub-continent and stood as
giants in a Lilliput of our own making...

GERARD
Let’s get back

PROFESSOR
I am sorry not to have known your father better. He brought a
blond woman with him, I can’t remember her name, introduced
her as his translator...

SHIV
What?

PROFESSOR
That one summer that we had him up here, I remember he
brought a friend... our gatherings tended to be of the quiet
variety, a meeting of like minds, I believe he expected a
different sort of party...

GERARD
Uncle.

PROFESSOR
Yes of course, let’s get moving! Good to meet you, Shiv!

(To Gerard, re.

 56.

Pontiac) This goes in the trash the moment we're back in the
house, I won't have you putting it with the collection,
offending the other models.

(PROFESSOR exits, GERARD

follows.)

(BAPU bursts in. Ordinary

time. The apartment is
dirty, dusty, plain.)

BAPU
Shivratri, are you dreaming in here? Didn’t you hear me
calling?

SHIV
No.

BAPU
Well I have been, I have been calling for you for five
minutes, are you hungry?

SHIV
Did your friend leave?

BAPU
My friend? We’re working on translations of my work, she’s my
translator.

SHIV
People see her car outside.

BAPU
My colleague left half an hour ago. We finished our work for
the day.

SHIV
That’s great, that’s exciting. You should tell Mummy about
it.

BAPU
Why do you think you are talking to me in this way?
I expect you to keep a civil tongue, you think you can behave
however you please like these uncivilized people here?
You hold your tongue.
 57.

SHIV
If you two are just working, why does it matter if I hold my
tongue?

BAPU
I’m not talking to you about this. You are a very disobedient
child, and I’m not discussing it. You can’t understand these
adult matters.

(beat)

Shivratri. It’s just you and me against the world, right?

We’re in this together.

SHIV
Why do you pour it into a coke can? Mummy can tell you’re
drinking, all she has to do is look at the empty bottle.

BAPU
And who is telling her to look at the bottle? Ah?

(BAPU switches tactics)

Ok, let's go look at this bottle, where is this bottle?

(BAPU disappears into the

other room, re-appears in
the doorway holding a half-
empty bourbon bottle)

BAPU
Here we are, look at this, it's a bottle looking very guilty.
Could you be any more obvious, bottle? Try to do some acting!

Oh that is funny to you? This is comedy? Do you know what

else comes in bottles?

SHIV
No

BAPU
Messages

SHIV
Messages?
 58.

BAPU
Look inside. Go on.

(Shiv looks into the bottle)

You see this is the cosmic ocean. From which I draw my

inspiration. My poetry does not come from nowhere, it comes
from somewhere. From the divine. From the depths of the sea.

SHIV
I don’t want to

BAPU
Wait, do you see something else in there? Sailing upon the
ocean. Look at that, it's Shivratri and Bapu, aboard a
spaceship with a kite for a sail! Look out “new worlds and
new civilizations”!
Well that explains everything. It's hard to say which is
reality and which is Vishnu's dream, us or them. What do you
think of that? Is our existence not magical?

SHIV
Our existence is miniature.

BAPU
Who said that to you? Ey, what is wrong with you?

SHIV
I’m not eight. And you’re not writing.

(pause)

BAPU
Hey. Knock knock

(beat)

Knock knock.

SHIV
Who’s there?

BAPU
Christopher Columbus
 59.

SHIV
Christopher Columbus who?

BAPU
Christopher Columbus looking for Indians! Fast forward 500
years. Knock Knock.

SHIV
Who’s there?

BAPU
The Indians

SHIV
The Indians who?

BAPU
We heard Christopher Columbus was looking for us, so we came
right over!
It’s like a joke with the longest punch line in the world.

(BAPU laughs alone. Exits.)

 60.

PULSE 6- DESTRUCTION

SHIV on her mattress, listens to

voices offstage.

BAPU (OFFSTAGE)
I don't have to stay around here to listen to this bullshit!
I'm not staying for this! This is finished!

SHIV
(quietly) Stop.

BAPU (OFFSTAGE)
I have other options in this life! Goddammit!

SHIV
Stop...

(SHIV grabs the radio,

searches for a channel.)

SHIV
(quietly, into the radio) ... Mayday! Mayday! Come in!
Mayday! We have an emergency.

(BAPU enters SHIV’s room,

wearing a coat.)

BAPU
Shivratri… what’s going on, why are you awake?

SHIV
(into the radio) Come in, we’re under attack, we need your
help!

BAPU
Stop playing pretend... Shivratri... listen, I have to go/

SHIV
(into the radio) Our ship is stripped, we need a new power
source

BAPU
Stop that, you're wasting the battery.
And what is all that junk on your bed, how will you sleep in
there?
 61.

SHIV
(to Bapu) Get onboard.

BAPU
Shivratri, stop it, I'm trying to explain to you something
here/

SHIV
Only take what you can carry, come on/

BAPU
Shivratri!
Listen, I am moving in with a very nice lady, she's waiting
for me downstairs, ok?/

SHIV
We have to go

BAPU
Shivratri, none of this is real. You know this. Life is not
some fantasy.

SHIV
I won’t ask you again

BAPU
Shivratri, listen... listen to me. Just listen. Ok?
It’s just so dark. It’s so dark down here.
This foolish American woman is just how I turn on some light
in the room. Her head is like a light bulb, you know, all
that yellow hair? A poet needs some light to write.
At his desk.
In the night.
I can’t live here anymore. I can’t.
I have to go. You understand?

(beat)

SHIV
I do. I understand.

As the ranking officer on this ship, I assume your command.

You are relieved of your duties.

BAPU
Shivratri... beti...
 62.

SHIV
You are excused.

BAPU
Listen, I'll call you tomorrow...

SHIV
You may leave the bridge.

BAPU
... ok?

SHIV
Captain.

BAPU
Ok...

(BAPU exits the bridge, exits

the room, exits the
apartment. SHIV speaks into
radio.)

SHIV
I have a map. Coffee stain circling the destination, like a
radar sight.

Everett Publishing. 27 East Lake Road.

Dear Mr. Kumar, thank you for your inquiry, unfortunately we
cannot invite you back for the spring gathering, we have a
limited amount of space, and as you will surely understand,
we feel it is important to give other young poets the
opportunity, sincerely yours, Everett & Publishers. The seat
of power.

I’ll dig our ship out, get her sea-worthy again, and then
take to the sky.

(Lake time. It’s night. The

lamp flickers out, SHIV
suspends the flashlight for
illumination.
 63.

During the following speech,

Shiv amasses loot from the
big house onto her mattress:
the miniature pontiac, a taj
mahal snowglobe, an
hourglass, etc. Whatever a
raft containing the remnants
of a lost civilization would
look like.)

After a sand storm, you map the world anew. In my travels I

discover the topography of his humiliation... like the sweat
beading on his neck when my teachers didn’t laugh at his
jokes... like his shoes gathering dust while others remained
clean... like his fingers clutching a pen over the same blank
page day after day... week after week... and I map this
terrain.

(GERARD enters. SHIV points

the flashlight at him.)

SHIV
Trouble with your power?

GERARD
It’s out. What are you doing?

(SHIV returns to her project,

does not respond.)

Hey.

SHIV
I’m heading out with the tide.
The cosmos is my mistress, can't stay in port forever.

GERARD
Why not?

SHIV
Got what I came for.

GERARD
And what’s that?
Is that our…?
 64.

SHIV
Good eye.

GERARD
... the snowglobe from the entry way? And that’s our...
you’re stealing?

SHIV
Things that glow can’t be purchased, they have to be taken.
And I need an internal power source, I might be out there a
while. Look at that, perfect fit...

(SHIV continues her assembly

and loading)

GERARD
You can’t just take our things.

SHIV
That’s funny.

GERARD
Look, I’ll help you put it all back.

(SHIV sits atop her loot,

dares him to try. Beat.)

SHIV
He said he couldn’t bring a guest.

GERARD
What?

SHIV
My dad. He said he couldn’t bring a guest, not on the first
visit. That if he could, he’d bring me, I’d be his number
one...

GERARD
What?

SHIV
He came here, to this lake. And he said that he had to go
alone the first time, that there were strict rules. About
first contact. But he lied.
 65.

Did they laugh at him? Behind his back? Or not even behind
his back?

GERARD
I have no idea, I was a kid.

SHIV
They probably did. Everyone at school did. That’s why I
wasn’t friends with any of them.

GERARD
I’m sorry.

SHIV
I just didn’t know that she came here with him.

GERARD
That was a long time ago...
It’s the past... it doesn’t have to change everything...

SHIV
Did you know that Indians invented non-linear time?
Everything is now. Everything is here.

(Final ship preparations)

It’s alright. I understand the appeal of shiny things. It

runs in the family.

GERARD
Can we talk about this tomorrow? After the Professor leaves?

SHIV
No.

GERARD
We can talk...

SHIV
I won’t be here.

GERARD
Why?
 66.

SHIV
I’m putting my ship back together, I’m sailing out with the
tide, I’m taking the generator, and all the sand of the
Punjabi desert in this here hourglass, this red Pontiac, and
a Taj Mahal snow globe.
Loot. It’s the only way to power a galaxy class starship,
don’t you know.

GERARD
I thought I was shiny too, why am I not in the pile?

(SHIV plugs in the generator,

her ship hums to life, the
light bulb turns on.)

SHIV
Turns out without all of this, you’re not so shiny.
You can go now. Don’t just stand there, go.
I’ve already cut your power line, you just haven’t noticed.
You’re falling away. A speck in the distance.
I can barely see you anymore.

(A light wind blows. GERARD

sees her ship now, lit up
and intact.)

GERARD
It’s beautiful. Your ship is beautiful.

(SHIV does not answer. A long

moment.)

Good bye

(A slightly stronger wind

blows. GERARD exits. Pause.)

SHIV
Good bye.

(The wind blows, and the

sails billow.
 67.

The ship motors and sails

however a modernist ship
with an internal power
source would sail, into the
cosmic ocean.)

SHIV
The sky is my domain!

(Ocean wind, the sound of

other kites zipping past,
getting sliced down,
screeches and wails and
water and wind, it’s amazing
up here.)

(Then a moment of stillness,

the other kites have died
down, and the radio garbles
to life, “Mayday Mayday.”
SHIV is distracted.)

Stop.

(Garbled radio- “Mayday,

Mayday! We’re under
attack!”)

Stop it! I don’t have time!

(Clearer: “Mayday, Mayday”

It’s SHIV’s distress call
from the previous scene.)

Dammit. Dammit fine. Fine.

(SHIV stops. Nothing. Water

lapping.)

I know you’re here. Get on.

(BAPU enters. They face each

other, it’s been a long
time.)
 68.

BAPU
You’ve grown.

SHIV
Yes.

BAPU
I didn’t think you’d stop for me.

SHIV
You can't have your former rank. You can be an ensign.

BAPU
Ok.

SHIV
Get on.

(He boards the ship)

Hold tight.

(the wind blows, they sail.

BAPU smiles.)

BAPU
You’ve gotten good.

(BAPU notices the lamp.)

What’s this?

SHIV
Your girlfriend. I re-wired her for you.

BAPU
Such a sharp tongue, you always had.

(SHIV smiles. Beat.)

Do you want to talk about it?

(SHIV’s smile fades)

SHIV
What?
 69.

BAPU
Your young man.

SHIV
No.

BAPU
Ok.
Good haul. Interesting collection. Any particular system?

SHIV
Nothing usable. I’m the daughter of a modernist.

(BAPU picks up the snow

globe)

BAPU
Why is it snowing on the Taj Mahal?

SHIV
Don’t know.

(Beat. BAPU smiles.)

BAPU
It’s good to be back.

SHIV
Yeah.

(Pause. Lights pulse out,

then pulse in.)

PULSE 7- COSMIC OCEAN

(Storm, BAPU and SHIV are

tied together with a rope,
they lean this way and that,
desperately trying to keep
the raft from tipping,
yelling over the storm.)

BAPU
To the left, to the left!
 70.

SHIV
I see it, stop yelling!

BAPU
Sail fearlessly into the wind!

SHIV
We are not afraid!

BAPU
Cut it now! Cut it!

(They cut down another kite,

the sound of a line bursting
and they soar.)

SHIV
WOOOOOOO!!!!!

BAPU
I’m HOOOOOOOMMMEEE!!!!!!

(They holler primal screams

into the wind. Lights pulse
out, pulse in.)

PULSE 8- COSMIC OCEAN

(BAPU and SHIV have

constructed the loot into
something more vertical, to
be topped by the stolen
brass address plaque reading
“27 East Lake Road”)

BAPU
I say it goes on top, like a flag

SHIV
Yeah.
(They mount the address
plaque)

BAPU
That’s nice. It’s coming together. Don’t you think?
 71.

SHIV
Yeah.

BAPU
Do you want to talk about him now?

SHIV
No.

BAPU
You sure?

SHIV
There’s nothing to talk about.

BAPU
Ok... ok... where to next, Captain?

SHIV
I haven’t decided.

BAPU
Just be careful not to sail out the bottle neck, we’ll go
down some imperialist gullet again, who knows if we’ll ever
extract ourselves a second time.

SHIV
When did we extract ourselves the first time?

BAPU
Who even remembers what India was before. What she might have
been. For all we know it looked exactly like this, a dirty
mattress sailing across the ocean like a barge of found
objects and found souls.
You did a good job. It feels like home.

SHIV
Yeah.

(BAPU sits at his make-shift

desk to write.)

PULSE 9- COSMIC OCEAN

 72.

(BAPU is fishing, SHIV is

perched up high atop her
creation, looking out. She’s
bored.)

SHIV
It’s quiet

(BAPU doesn’t look up from

his fishing.)

Did you hear me? It’s quiet.

BAPU
Yah.

SHIV
I’m bored.

(pause)

BAPU
You want a story?

SHIV
No.

(pause)

BAPU
Ok. Well, that’s all I’ve got. Maybe you should have brought
some books. I am happy here.

SHIV
I’m not.

(beat)

Are we there yet?

BAPU
That’s funny.

SHIV
Are we there yet?
 73.

BAPU
Ok, why are you still here on this raft? Ah?
This is my place, not yours.

SHIV
I built it.

BAPU
Yes. Thank you.

(pause)

SHIV
Where am I supposed to go?

BAPU
I have no map for you.

SHIV
Well then what good are you?

BAPU
Precisely.
Now stop yelling at me about it, you’ll scare the damn fish.

(Pause. SHIV’s glare is

palpable.)

Look around you, Shivratri. All the other kites are gone, I’m
the only one left.
It’s time to cut my line.
You understand me?

(beat)

You understand me or no, I want an answer.

SHIV
You don’t really want that.

BAPU
Of course I want that. Why do you think I brought you to
America? Where the winners are? Of course I want you to.

(pause)
 74.

I made you sharp for a reason, don’t tell me all that work
was for nothing.

(silent beat)

Number One?

SHIV
Yes.

BAPU
I need to know that you understand me.

(silent beat.)

SHIV
Yes.

BAPU
Ok. Ok good.

(BAPU turns to look out over

the water. His work here is
done.)

I’m going to have Pisces for breakfast.

(Beat)

SHIV
You think you’ll catch one?

BAPU
I think I’ll catch both. I’ve got nothing but time.

SHIV
Ok.
Ok.
Good bye, Bapu.

BAPU
Yah.
Chup now.

(Pause. SHIV cuts the line.

SHIV soars, free.
 75.

SHIV, ocean, and wind sob,

or whatever happens when you
cut yourself loose from your
own play. Lights pulse out)

PULSE 10- COSMIC OCEAN

(Audience POV = SHIV’s POV:

Lights up on BAPU alone on
the mattress on a quiet
ocean. BAPU waves to SHIV.
Lights pulse out, pulse in.)

PULSE 11- COSMIC OCEAN

(BAPU is further away, BAPU

waves. Lights pulse out,
pulse in.)

PULSE 12- COSMIC OCEAN

(BAPU is in the distance,

BAPU waves.)

(Lights out)

REBIRTH

END OF PLAY