INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN...267

 

                                   INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN…267

                                             Dr K Prabhakar Rao

(It is Pak military Head Quarters and a meeting is  likely to commence with army Chief  and Army commanders. Gandhi, Patel and Nehru learn about the meeting)

Gandhi. Patel. I think we must some how attend the meeting of these Generals.

Patel. Bapu. Who will allow us?

Gandhi. We have transparent bodies.  We can hide and watch. We need no Visa and passports.

Patel. That is true. How about Jawaharlal.? Will he come ?

Nehru. I shall also come. I am no less than you.

Gandhi. Fine . Let us go.For a change Jawaharl is bold enough.

Patel. Hee..Heee..heee.

Nehru. Patel. There is no requirement of saying hee..hee

( The trio  land up at Army Headquarters in Raqwalpindi. The meeting is going on. The trio slowly enter the conference room. . They are not seen by any one. They stand behind a curtain.)

Gen Kayani. Welcome Generals for today’s meeting. We are meeting after long time. In fact, I was very busy and did not find time to meet all of you.

Gen Jihadi. No matter to worry sir. We are happy.

Gen Kayani. Were you happy that I was busy and had no time to meet you guys?

Gen Jihadi. I did not mean that way. As it  is,  we are happy guys.

Gen Kayani. OK. It is fine. I am sure you guys know todays agenda.

Gen Zalim Khan. Yes sir. The agenda was circulated earlier. So we know it.

Gen Kayani. Good it was done. Otherwise I  have to explain from scratch. The main agenda is about India’s preparedness for war with  us. Gen Jihadi. What have you  done  in this regard? You  are the Chief of Intelligence wing. What information you have collected till date?

Gen Jihadi.  Sir, We did not make efforts in fact after you gave  us directives.

Gen Kayanai (angrily) Then what you have been doing all these months. Were you hatching eggs. Were you passing time playing Golf? What for you have been appointed? Is it the answer I expect from you?

Gen Zalim Khan. Sir. You are rude for no reason. Have some patience and listen to us.

Gen Kayani. Please remember. I am the chief here and I call the shots.

Gen Jihadi. Sir. What you require is the information. How we get does not matter. We know what you want to know and how much you want to know.. We also know what you want from us and to know what. Knowing the information is more important and we know what you really wanted to know and how much to give also we know. You infact  do not know how much we know. You also do not know how much we would be able to know.  Please know that we are fully aware of things  that you wanted to know.

Gen Kayani. Eeee….eeee..eee…e.eeee. Stop it. Stop it. Bloody man now stop. I just can not make out what you said. ee.eeee…eee.( Pulls his hair)

Gen Jihadi. Haa..haa..Unless you have patience how do you assimilate information?

Gen Kayani. I am getting crazy. Ee..ee..eee…eeee…. Now tell me what information you have? Is India ready to fight us? Are they ready to defeat us. Will they loose if we attack them now?

Gandhi (  From behind the curtain). Hee..Heee.. Hello General. Stop dreaming about India  loosing to you.

Gen Kayani( angrily) Who is the clown talking? I am sure it is none of you. I think some other guy spoke. Please carry out a search in the room.Shoot the bloddy bas …

( The guarss search everywhere and nothing is found. They go out. )

Gen Kayani. We were disturbed.  I was asking whether India is ready to fight us?

GenJinadi. Sir. Recently I learnt  that a great turmoil took place in India. There was some problem  between Indian Ministry of Defense and army there.

Gen Kayani. What was that? Please tell me fast. I am itching to know that.( He scratches his arm violently)

Gen Jihadi. Sir You Gen VK Singh of India.

Gen Kayani. I know him. He  is  India’s army chief. But what we have to do with him?

Gen Jihadi. Sir. Some tension was built between him and Ministry of Defense since long. First, Gen VK Singh contested his date of birth issue at court when Govt did not respond favorably for changing his date of birth which was along standing issue. The Indian highest court gave verdict infavour of the Govt.

Gen Kayani. Naturally they do. I see. Then what happened? Why he is fighting for his date of birth now as a Chief? Was he sleeping all these years? It is very strange, as army chief he could not solve his own problem.

Gen Jihadi. The issue could not be settled all these years.   He could have served for an year more if the date of birth was corrected.

Gen Kayani. That means they will have new army chief. The story is clear. Govt wanted to get rid of him  surely.That is the method to get rid of  a guy They succeeded. Hee..hee..hee.

Gen Zalim Khan. Sure. In India Civil authority is supreme. Defense forces do puppet dance.

Gen Kayani. We are lucky here. Here we call the shots. Here civilian guys get back benches whenever we want. It is in our hands. Hee..hee..Hee. We can take over whenever we want. Other guys can be put in spin just like that. All others are Lattoos (   tops) and we are strings.

Patel ( From behind curtain).  Silly guys. Do you think you guys are doing correct things? Your country suffered greatly all these years under army rule..

Gen Kayani. Who is this nut again speaking? He appears to be another guy. Guards. Search every where. Skin the guys who  are  hiding.

Patel. Hee..Hee..Hee

( Gen Kayani draws his pistol and fires towards the voice. The bullet goes through the curtain and hits the wall and is reflected. The bullet hits the photograph of Mohammed Ali Jinnah  hung on the wall. The glass breaks into pieces. One of the eye of Jinnahs  photograph is damaged)

Gen Zalim Khan. Sir, Relax. We are lucky that the bullet did not hit us. We are saved.Kindly control yourself sir.

Gen Kayani. Ok. Ok. I shall take it easy. Then what happened?

Gen Jihadi. In a fresh move the army chief declared that he was  offered a bribe of few crores some time ago by an agency if he accepted substandard Tatra trucks. This shook the govt that promptly announced an  high level probe. The army chief named a retired Lt General as the person who offered him the bribe. Hell broke loose in India.

Gen Kayani.  What was his next salvo?

Gen Jihadi. A letter written by the Army chief to the PM was leaked by some one. The letter revealed that Indian army was in very bad shape devoid of ammunition to field guns and other  weapons too. Most of the equipment was outdated and not battle worthy. He was much skeptical about Indian armys preparedness to fight enemy.A grim picture was presented.

Gen Kayani.  Yeah..Yeah.. Done. The guys are  now caught. They can not escape. Gen Jihadi. We have been spending Crores of Rs to get information on Indian army all these years. Now we have got everything free of cost from the mouth of Army chief itself. We must thank the guy who leaked the letter. He deserves to be given our coveted award, Nishan E Pakistan. ( He gets up from chair and fires few shots from his pistol into air and does jig and sings)

Look Guys the Indian are now done

Soon they will be on the mat

We are sure to reach the Redfort lawns

And celebrate our victory with bottle of VAT.

Patel( From behind the curtain). Look fools. Do not underestimate Indian army. They shall teach you befitting lesson. Keep watching.

Gen Kayani. You.. son. Of a .. Come out and face us. I shall show you. I shall make you flat.Come out. Don’t hide if you are son of a mother.

Patel. OK. I am in front of you now. Catch me if you can. Hee..heee.

Gen Kayani. Are you fooling me? If you are standing in front of me why you are not seen? Come out. Be brave.

Gandhi. I am also here and infront of you. Catch me if you can

( Gen Kayani fires  from  his pistol and the bullets strike Gen Jihadi and Gen Zalim Khan and they collapse in chairs)

Patel. Well done Kayani. Never dream of defeating India. You shall lnad up like this only. We are off now. Bye

(Gen Kayani shrieks loudly and slumps in his chair as the trio vanish from Pakistan ).

                                        CURTAIN FALLS