Coffee, Cigarettes & Conversations

Act 1:

Location: Aranya's House

Time: Somewhere at around 5:30 pm

"Light a smoke, Aranya. Will you?" Requests Akanksha while stubbing her current cigarette and reaching out for a bottle of water. Aranya says, "Wait sugar. Let me just go and get some water". She gets up from her bean bag and fits her t-shirt that reads "Born to be Free". "Do you want something to eat? I have Maggi or there's the upma mix as well. Do you want me to make some?" She asks Akanksha.

"Relax, ya. We're in no hurry, are we?" Replies Akanksha whilst arranging her hair as she gets off from the mattress and arranges her t-shirt. "Just get some chips and that should be fine for the time being". She says this and vanishes into the bathroom to take a leak. Aranya goes to the kitchen, opens her fridge and fetches a bottle of water and gets a pack of potato wafers that they had bought from a shop on their way back. She comes and sits on her bean bag and opens the pack of wafers. Akanksha just walks into the room and closes the door behind her.

She sees Aranya crushing some weed and she lies down on the mattress while taking a few wafers from the packet. Aranya continues while crushing the weed; "so, tell me Akanksha does your family know what you do here?"

"Yeah, they certainly do. They know that I study here" replies Akanksha. "Yeah right, Akanksha. That's not exactly what I meant to ask you" says Aranya. "Do your folks know that you smoke up and all that?" she further continues. "Are you nuts? You think they would allow me to stay alone in here or anywhere if they had the slightest idea of what I do here?" replies Akanksha.

"Then why do you do it?" asks Aranya now just keeping aside the paper which still has some of the leftover crushed weed. She is now done with the joint. She lifts her hands and just rubs them off with one another to shirk off the strands of weed that have just gotten stuck in her hands. Akanksha pulls Aranya's hands closer to her and smells them. "Ah, that is bliss. That is closest mankind can ever get to god and divinity" she says. "Play some music, na" she tells Aranya and Aranya just rearranges her t-shirt and opens the hood of her laptop and plays Freedom by Jimi Hendrix. They both take a few sips of water and Akanksha picks up the joint and lights it.

A puff of smoke fills the room as Akanksha relishes the taste of the pure green weed and closes her eyes on the lovely guitar notes of Hendrix. She reclines on her mattress and sees the faded-yellow wall right in front of her that has the quote "Mankind is condemned to freedom"

"These philosophers, you know, were such thinkers. I mean look at the concepts that these guys spoke about. Seriously those were the times, ya. Why the hell were we not born during those times?" says Akanksha while taking the joint from Aranya. "Oh yeah, tell me about it. There was such depth in their thoughts" Says Aranya. She further continues "Anarchy, absolute freedom, morality and varying takes on it, religion and the perceptions of the same – damn, those guys thought! And look at us. What are we doing?"

"Oh yeah, they were radicals. Sometimes, I feel strongly connected to the cause of Anarchy, you know. I mean the very thought of conditional freedom is like the finest paradox ever coined" Adds Akanksha. "Aha, so if you believe in the concept of anarchy, Akanksha, then why do you hide the fact that you dope from your parents?" asks Aranya. "Well you know the answer to that, don't you? Morality is the word here, sweetheart! My family, you know are devout Catholics and such things would shame them. To them, being an ideal Christian is to kneel, stand, kneel, and stand in the church! For long, I used to believe blindly in those sorts of things till I came out of home. I guess being in home certainly blindfolds you to follow whatever is shoved down your throat – be it values, beliefs, lifestyle or anything. It's only after you hit the streets and dragged out of your comfort zone, are your perceptions realigned." Replies Akanksha.

"So, if you believe so much in freedom and your being and your definition of morality, then why don't you put your foot down and tell your folks what it really is out here?" says Aranya and sees Akanksha lighting a match stick and running her finger over the flame right after having smoked a joint. She tries to stop her; but in vain. "What the hell are you doing?" she asks. "Its penance, sweetie" replies Akanksha.

Act 2:

Location: The De'Silva House, Goa

Time: 6:30 pm

Mr. and Mrs. De'Silva come back home from the church. "Let's call Akanksha and see how she's doing?" says Mr. De'Silva while motioning towards the phone. He picks up the phone and dials his daughter's number.

"Hey honey! How're you?" asks Mr. De'Silva. "Well, we just returned from the church and your mom is headed straight to the kitchen to prepare supper." He sits down on the sofa and continues talking to Akanksha "Nothing much, beta. Life is just going on. Goa is no more the place it used to be at a point of time, you know. Drinks, drugs and everything is catching up here. It's turning into a haven for immoral souls. So, glad to know that you've still retained your sanity and sanctity!" After conversing for like another 2 minutes, he calls out his wife's name and hands over the phone to her.

"Beta, how're you doing?" asks Mrs. De'Silva.

"I already asked her that question. Do you think her status is gonna change within 90 seconds?" retorts Mr. De'Silva at seeing his wife ask a redundant question.

"So, did you watch that serial, Akanksha? The episode was so bad, you know. The women in these serials are such schemers, I tell you." She goes on talking about the same old TV serial and then discusses about the neighbor who has had his son return from the United States and then eventually after speaking for 5 minutes, she finally hangs up the call.

Act 3:

Location: Space Lounge

Time: Somewhere around 5:30 pm

A mobile phone comes to life in a shady, low-lying, seedy bar. A young guy aging around 28 standing at the counter puts his hand in his pocket and fetches his phone. "Akanksha Calling" it says on the screen. "Yo, what's up?" asks Charlie. "Nothing much, baby. Just waiting for Johnny to come over; we need to go out and collect some money from some folks who have not been paying up." The whole bar is bathed in red and is filled with very few people. This is one of the restricted places where entry is sanctioned only based on permission of the owners. It's a private club.

Charlie hangs up the phone and he sees the door open up. Johnny is frisked by the bouncers and he is almost on the verge of being disallowed from entering the pub when Charlie intervenes and asks them to allow Johnny to come in.

"But he hasn't cleared his past dues, Charlie" say the bouncers. "That's ok. I'll take care of his payments" replies Charlie. Johnny is finally allowed in and he comes in with a radiant smile on his face. He walks over to Charlie, gives him a hug and pats him on the back. He then looks at the bar tender and orders for a whisky. Charlie also orders a drink for himself. They gulp it down, sit there and start talking. "So, what's the plan, guys?" asks Johnny. "Nothing much except that we need to go out and get bakery guy to pay up. He owes us a lot of money and it's about time that he pays up."

Soon after finishing their drinks, Charlie and Johnny pick up their other friends who are their dancing with the girls and busy feeling them. They pull these guys and get into a car and drive towards the bakery. Right outside the bakery, the car comes to a halt and they get down. All the 5 guys enter the bakery and the owner of the bakery – as soon as he sees Charlie – he closes the door changes the door sign from being open to close. After a few minutes of heated discussion, the bakery owner loses his head and insults Johnny who pulls out a gun and shoots the baker right there.

All the guys are stunned at this and then they scamper out the bakery. They get into the car and move away from there.

"What the hell did you just do? What sense did it make for you to pull your gun there?" screams Charlie out of sheer fear. "Damn, you impulsive bastard!" he further continues.

"Ah, now you're calling me impulsive, eh? Didn't that son-of-a-bitch get what he deserved? You wanted your money and that guy wasn't paying up. What did you expect me to do?" replies Johnny. "We were talking to him and we could have straightened this thing out. You didn't have to shoot. Violence is not the way to resolve things, man"

The car reaches a secluded spot and is stopped there. Johnny gets off the car and lights a cigarette and Charlie also steps out of the car. "Ah, you mean talking sense would make these guys more agreeable to you? Screw you, man. These are the streets and these are the laws of streets" Screams Johnny. Charlie replies "You think you were justified in blowing that guy's head off?" "What justification are you talking about, Charles?" asks Johnny. He further continues "If justification was all that mattered to you then you should've taken to being part of the seminary. The only morality that works out here is survival. In fact there is no time even for you to coin your moralities. You blink and you're gone."

"You mean there is no significance of religion and the teachings?"

Act 4:

Location: Aranya's House

Time: 7:30 pm

"So, you think that religion tends to bog you down or you feel that religious morality is bull shit?" asks Aranya. "Well, the point here is that the religious morality is dictatorian. Remember we were speaking about the aspect of absolute freedom and conditional freedom? And that ties into the aspect of religious morality and subjective morality" replies Akanksha.

"I strongly feel that an individual is free to make his or her own choices. I believe that there's nothing called an objective morality. Morality is a spur-of-the-moment concept. It is created based on the situations and it is also subject to change based on the circumstances that people find themselves in." Akanksha says.

"If that is the case, then why did you do the penance a little while earlier?" asks Aranya and Akanksha replies "Contradictions, my dear are a part of life." She says this and asks Aranya if they can have a cup of coffee.

Both Aranya and Akanksha get up and get to the kitchen and prepare a cup of coffee each. Akanksha lights a smoke and they head back to the room.

"Religious morality or the teachings of the religion are so stringent that it induces a very strong feeling of guilt. You end up feeling guilty for even keeping certain company. And then the whole idea of salvation, heaven and hell and so on and so forth also screws up your life" Says Akanksha.

"Does Charlie agree with your perceptions? I thought he was a pretty devout Catholic too" Asks Aranya. Akanksha replies "Oh he doesn't agree at all but then he too is stuck, you know. Being born into a Catholic family has induced a very strong sense of right and wrong in him; but at the same time he finds himself at the crossroads of such questions all the time. Born in a religious family and growing up on the streets are enough contradictions that you can be faced with."

Act 5:

Location: A secluded place

Time: 8:30 pm

Both Johnny and Charlie continue to have a heated argument. Charlie tries to reason with Johnny about the murder and he tries to tell him that they should turn themselves in.

"Damn, don't you get it? We go to the cops and we're done. And why are you talking about the cops? Don't you know that the system is broken and corrupt too? You've an uncle who is paid up with the cops and all the influential people. What morality and justice are you talking about? You think surrendering ourselves to a system which in itself is corrupt is gonna create a balanced justice?" screams Johnny.

Charlie sensing the futility in trying to reason with Johnny and the rest of the gang decides to walk off from the scene and turn himself in. As he turns his back on Johnny and starts walking off, a gun goes off again. Charlie turns back and sees Johnny with the gun in his hand and the gun is pointed at Charlie himself. Both Charlie and Johnny engage in a fisticuff and the gun goes off again. Johnny falls down and blood oozes out of his chest. Johnny looks at Charlie's face and breathes his last. Charlie stands there over Johnny's dead body with the gun in his hand and a hint of blood as well. He looks at Johnny's open eyes and cold body and he turns the gun on himself. He kisses the cross locket dangling off his neck and then shoots himself in the head. He falls down in the dead of the night. The headlight of the car casts a silhouette on both their bodies. The other 3 friends start the car and speed away.

Act 6:

Final Conversation

Time: 9:00 pm

Akanksha's phone rings. "Ok. When did this happen? Have their bodies been discovered? Alright, I will be there in sometime to claim their bodies" Says Akanksha while answering a call.

"What happened?" asks Aranya. "Ah, I just got a call from the cops that Charlie is dead. His body was found by the roadside. And along with his, they have even found Johnny's body. Looks like they had a fight and…" says Akanksha and takes a drag of her cigarette.

Right after the cops' call is disconnected, Akanksha gets another call and this time from her parents. "Dad, yeah I lied to you about his being. Now what's the point of having a discussion about this?" she says.

"I let you down, right? You're disappointed, right?" she says this and hangs up the call.

Aranya looks at Akanksha and asks her "Are you not slightly disoriented by what's happened?" Akanksha replies "Yeah, I'm fine. And you know what? This is what was coming to him. He wanted to live on the streets with the codes of the church. He wanted to own the streets with the codes of honor."

Both Aranya and Akanksha light another cigarette and look at the wall graffiti that says "Mankind is condemned to freedom".

--------------The End---------------