The Key

Characters:

Younger brother
Elder brother
Young man
Young woman
Kaka (tea vendor)
Policeman
Owner
Priest
A group of girls and boys

One
It is almost evening when light comes on the stage. There is a junkshop at the street corner. Its name board, hanging precariously, reads:"India Tire Works" & "Bharat Kee Repair Shop". Insidethe shop, there are dog-eared calendars hanging from the walls. They have imagesof Mecca and Medina. In front of the shop there are old automobile and cycletyres, stacked one above the other. Next to the tyres is a trough of water. Oldtyre tubes are found scattered on the shop floor. Worn out number plates ofvehicles are also seen hanging in one corner. Right inside the shop there is abirdcage hanging from the ceiling, with a bulbul bird inside. A tiffin carrierwith a handkerchief wrapped around it is seen hanging close to the cage. Acouple of feet from the shop, there is a film poster, pasted on an improvisedbamboo stand.

Two
With this as the background, we see two boys, aged around ten and twenty infront of the shop. The younger brother is wearing torn knickers and a shirt thatsticks to his skin. He is playing gulli-danda (if this is a littledifficult to depict on the stage, the boy could be shown spinning a top). He istrying very hard to connect the gulli to the danda. He isconcentrating hard. The elder brother is removing a punctured tube from a cycletyre. At this point, a school bell is heard ringing and there is the "hooooo…"sound that children make while rushing out of school. The elder brother iswearing a soiled white pyjama and an over-sized long shirt with some buttonsmissing. Some students walk past the shop with books in their hands. When theelder brother hears the school bell ring, he walks towards his brother involvedin the game, gives him a stern look of warning, hands over the tube to him andasks him to check it. He also tells him that he has to go the hospital. Theyounger brother takes the tube from his brother, puts it around his neck andcontinues with the game. The elder brother takes the tiffin carrier, has a wordwith the bulbul bird and moves out. When he sees his brother still playing, hegives him a shout, pecks his head with his hand, takes the gulli-dandafrom his hand and throws it aside. The younger brother bangs his foot to theground, makes his unpleasantness known and starts blowing air into the cycletube. The elder brother leaves the stage. A group of three or four boys, intheir cricket whites, chatting among themselves, walk past the shop. The youngerbrother stops work for a while and looks at the group of boys and their bat andball. He resumes work with the tube and puts the neck of the tube in the troughof water, identifies the punctured spots and uses matchsticks lying around toplug them.

Three
A young man comes riding a scooter. His dress suggests that he is 'modern.' Theyounger brother sees the scooterist and throws the tube inside the shop. Theyoung man asks the boy to fix the number plate for the vehicle and enquiresabout his brother. The boy tells him that the elder one has gone to the hospitaland fixes the numberplate. He also pastes a sticker on the scooter. In themeantime, the young man looks into the rear view mirror of the scooter andadjusts his hair and rolls his fingers on his moustache. A girl walks past. Theyoung man whistles a tune from a recent movie, takes out five rupees from hispocket and gives it to the younger brother. The boy asks for more. The young manrefuses and kick-starts the scooter. The boy asks the young man to at least givehim a ride on the scooter. The young man agrees and the boy, who is very happy,sits like a maharaja.

Four
In a few seconds, after the boy and the young man have left on the scooter ayoung woman, looking tired, comes pushing her cycle to the shop. Two boys areseen holding up the rear wheel of the cycle. The woman pulls down the cyclestand in front of the shop and thanks the two boys. They leave. The woman wipesthe sweat on her forehead with a handkerchief, looks at her wristwatch, peepsinto the shop for the boy and appears panicky. The scooterist brings the boyback and applies the brake in a manner that scares the woman. He is thrilledthat he scared her. He starts whistling again, honks his scooter in ecstasy andleaves. The younger brother enquires about the woman’s problem. She tells himthat her cycle is locked and she has lost the key. He goes into the shop, bringsout a metal string, bends it a little, taps it a bit and puts it into thekeyhole. With a little effort the cycle lock opens. He rotates the cycle wheelonce with a sense of accomplishment and takes his tools inside. The woman takesout a 25 paise coin from her bag and gives it to him. The boy demands for 25paise more. He puts one coin in his shirt pocket and slips another into hisknickers. After the woman leaves he takes the cycle tube and starts fixing thepuncture.

Five
The street-side tea vendor, kaka, comes on stage shouting "cha…cha." He has a bucket filled with water in one hand and has a teakettle inthe other. He is wearing a heavily striped shirt and a colorful lungi. Hehas also knotted a thin cotton towel around his head. The little boy claps andcalls the kaka. Kaka gives tea to the boy and starts smoking his beedi, sittingon his haunches. The boy gulps the tea and returns the cup. Kaka cleans the cupin the bucket water and leaves it in the bucket. The boy takes out 25 paise fromhis knickers and gives it to the kaka. The teawallah ties it into his lungi andleaves, again shouting "cha, cha..."

Six
The younger brother sits down to work again and a football comes bouncing nearhim. The boy picks it up, looks at it with fondness, gets up and bounces it onthe ground. A player, in his team-wear, comes and snatches the ball from theboy. The boy keeps looking in the direction the player vanished and slowly walksinto the shop, swirls the bulbul cage once and gets back to work. He suddenlyremembers something and with anxiety starts searching for the key of the shop.He is not able to find it. He takes out a key from a bunch hanging on the walland starts rubbing it against a stone. At that point, a policeman walks insmoking a beedi. He looks around once and asks the boy to vacate the place. Hepushes the neatly stacked automobile tyres with his boots. The younger brotheris unhappy. He takes the policeman aside, gives him small change and gesturesthat the business has been quite dull. The policeman takes the small change,sports an artificial smile and leaves the place. The little boy sits down towork again.

Seven
An old man wearing a dhoti, comes limping and hands over an umbrella to theboy. He tells him that he has not been able to open it. The boy examines theumbrella, goes in, and brings a pair of cutting-pliers. He grips the umbrellabetween his knees and repairs it. He opens and closes the umbrella a couple oftimes and when he is convinced that it is working fine he swings it once aroundhim and hands it over to the old man. The old man gives him 25 paise. He givesit back to the old man and tells him the repair would cost him 50 paise. The oldman refuses to pay 25 paise extra. But then succumbs to the boy’s argument,grumbles and hands over 50 paise to the boy. He slips 25 paise into theknickers. The old man examines the umbrella and leaves after he finds it to beokay. The younger brother salutes him at first, but follows him limping for ashort distance. He feeds the bulbul with a few corns and plays with a tyre. Hesuddenly drops it down remembering something, he half shuts the shop and startsputting all the old tyres and tubes together.

Eight
A Christian priest comes hurriedly to the shop. He tells the boy to unlockthe suitcase that he is carrying with him. The little boy yawns and brings ahammer, a file and a key bunch. The priest looks around once and tells the boyto open the suitcase quickly. The boy works at his own pace, examines thesuitcase, picks a key from the bunch, files it a little and tries it. He appliessome force and the suitcase opens violently. A couple of bottles of foreignliquor roll out of the suitcase. The boy picks up one bottle and looks at itwith some curiosity. The priest snatches the bottle from his hand and puts itback into the suitcase. He examines the new key and asks the boy as to how muchhe needs to pay. The boy quotes one rupee. But the priest takes two one rupeenotes and gives it to the boy. The boy puts one into his shirt pocket and theother into his knickers. When the priest is leaving, he sees the bulbul bird,spends a moment with it and then starts walking out. He suddenly retraces hissteps, gives the boy a few chocolates and a book. The boy salutes him withrespect and the priest waves bye-bye.

Nine
The little brother pops in a couple of chocolates that the priest gave him.He flips through the pages of the book, does not seem to understand anything,throws it aside. He takes a few more chocolates, cuts them into small bits andfeeds the bulbul with it. There is a sound of the siren in the background. Theboy starts shifting in everything lying around the shop. He remembers something,picks the punctured cycle tube and starts filling air into it. Suddenly, hestops blowing; the air escaping from holes in the tube makes a strange sound. Heenjoys it. In the background, the evening call of the muezzin for prayers isheard. The little boy picks up the bulbul’s cage and starts looking into it.

Ten
In the background the muezzin’s call is still being heard. The prayer callgrows louder. The elder brother comes running into the stage and has tears inhis eyes. There is anxiety, sadness and fear writ on his face. The youngerbrother is yet to realise that his elder brother is back. He continues to playwith the bulbul. The elder brother pulls out the younger brother and tells himthat their father has passed away in the hospital. The younger brother drops thecage from his hand and cries helplessly. The elder brother closes the shop, hugsthe younger brother and moves out. The light is then focussed on the nameplateof the shop and the bulbul cage. As the light slowly fades out, the muezzin’scall grows faint.