Dark Comedy

Bijoy Gupta (in white t-shirt) looks lost

Bijoy Gupta is mentally in the dumps. The plays he has scripted are yet to be staged. He could not take home a single prize on Sports Day. Half the things that go around him do not register in his head. And now he is afraid that next week, there will be no Holi in the Garden.
“Kiran Prakash has gone,” he lamented this morning. “Yusuf Rassiwala is also away. There is nobody left in the Club to organize Holi, except Shekhawat. He is the chairman. He better do something about Holi, or else… Who made him chairman?”
Shekhawat was largely unresponsive knowing well he was being provoked. “I am not celebrating Holi this time,” he murmured.

Happy Birthday, Kiran Prakash
(file photo)

“There’s been a death in my family. We are in morning. My elder brother’s daughter’s daughter died barely a month back.”
Quick on the uptake, Gupta retorted: “My elder brother’s daughter’s daughter also died. I am not joking. It happened in Asansol. Her house suddenly developed cracks and crumbled to the ground. I am not joking. The rubble has still not been cleared.”
A hush descended during the exercises, only to be broken by Gupta himself. Turning to Nahid Khan, he asked abruptly if her parents are alive. “No, they are no more,” she replied politely. After some time, he turned to Shekhawat: “Is your father alive?” Shekhawat ignored him.
Bhaswati Bose was next. “Is your father alive?” Gupta asked. Sensing something up his sleeve, she tried to be non-committal. She pointed skywards to indicate that he too has gone to meet his creator.
“Rukhsana, is your father alive?”
Rukhsana Khan gave a toothy grin, saying he too has departed from the planet. “I don’t think anybody in the Club has surviving parents, except probably Banoo Apa,” she declared. “Banoo Apa goes to see her mother regularly.”
“Then let Banoo Apa play Holi by herself this time!” Gupta concluded. Nobody laughed.