fहndi - Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

The chanting turns into the ramblingof a madman.Fighting goes into cinematic slowmotion. The rambling continues : 'HwaHwa Hwa . . . balloon in the lagoon .. . yeti yet yeti. . . Science and sentiment... snow in sunshine . . . hwa hwa yetiyeti etc."Fighting in slow motion continues.The sound of a whip.All action on stage is frozen. The man,however, remains mobile.Constant whipping accompanied bythe moaning and yelling of the madmanwho still cannot help rambling in the samestrain.The man behaves as if he is beingwhipped. Tries not to let go of themushroom in spite of it.A political slogan is raised. Many voicesresound in answer.The man regains his balance and looksaround.Continuous sounds of a procession ofstrikers marching and raising slogans.The man tries to defreeze differentindividuals but without success. The hands,and feet of different individuals stay in thepositions in which he puts them. Only,he cannot take a mushroom out ofanybody's hands.Police whistles are heard from allaround.All people get defrozen suddenly andcluster around the man, who is pantingwith fatigue.Someone starts testing a microphone:'One . . . two . . . three . . . testing. . . testing ... testing . . .' Also soundsof a restless crowd.The man tries to squeeze out of thecluster but cannot.A Union leader's voice on themicrophone asks the public to be quiet.He starts giving a call for all-out disorderand destruction. His oratory is interspersedwith the testing of the mike. 'What weneed is an all-out revolution ... testing. . . testing . . . testing ... We are notafraid of chaos because it is chaos alonethat gives birth to a dancing star... Onetwo ... three ... testing ... testing ... I callupon all of you to join us in the greatmarch ... on Parliament . . . the Marchwhich is against all the dying institutionsperpetuated by that august body ... one... two ... three ... testing ... testing ... testing...All through the oratory, the clusterkeeps narrowing around the man who,having become resigned to his lot, feelsmore and more suffocated all the same.A school bell at the sound of whichthe oratory suddenly ceases.All people in the cluster are releasedas if from a school task and form a straightline, the man heading it.A male voice takes the roll call.Different names are called out.The people in the line answer the rollcall one by one. The man is the only onewhose name is not called out.A male voice gives a command :'School . . . disperse!'The line is broken and the people runout disorderly leaving their mushroomsfgndi •April-June 2013 :: 99