(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)
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