The Mind inside the Mask (Play)

(Everything seems to be a drama. Most of the people in the habitation wear masks. Probably there is a festival in the village and people have queued themselves in the local mart to buy masks for themselves. There are both local masks and imported masks available and they are rated different in price. The price of the mask depends upon the intensity of fear and terror that they arouse in the hearts of the buyers. But nobody knows what is in the mind of the sellers who themselves wear masks and sell the masks.)

Masked Person 1: (in a way to attract the attention of people around) I represent the continuous history of the mask. I had my own history but it no more exists. I am so possessed by the mask that now I only live the history of the mask.

           

(At a distance, there are people who have not worn masks. The majority of the people with masks are vigilantly watching those unmasked people with awe and wonder. It seems that people are a bit confused about how those people are going to perform without any mask. But everything here is the externalities of the mask. Nobody in the habitation knows what is inside the mind of the mask. Unmasked persons by now have arrived nearer).

Unmasked Person 1: (somewhat worried or desperate) History of a mask? Being a mask is not an assertion of life. The mask outside, in reality, does not resemble the mind inside. Mask as such does not have any history of its own. Mask is just a metaphor of our own process in the being. The masks retain their meaning until they can produce fear and terror in the spectators. Once the spectators adapt themselves with the masks, and the masks begin losing their effect, the very masks are non-existent. And where remains the history of the mask then?

(Murmurs and whispers fill the environment)

Unmasked Person 2: My dear friend, do not try to shatter the world of the people who live with masks. I can bet that even you are in the search of the mask. But it happened that old masks lost their essence. And the local masks were not as attractive and awesome as the imported ones. And you did not have the capacity to buy the imported masks that were expensive. This is why you are wandering in the habitation without any mask. Do you know my friend that people wearing masks these days are afraid with people who do not wear mask? You are also a mask-man without a mask. What does it mean even if you try to prove the world that you are without a mask when you are essentially manufacturing masks inside you?

(Please read Of Nepalese Clay, Issue 10 for the complete play)