PRATAP: Why not by the morrow.
SEKHAR: What about your jet log?
PRATAP: Isn’t it a silly question?
SEKHAR: Vimala may answer that better. Wish you a dreamy night.
PRATAP: After all those dreary years. Thanks a lot.
SEKHAR: Be ready by eight, bye.
PRATAP: Wait.
(PAUSE) This is a Rolex for you to be on time.
SEKHAR: Thank you, I’ll cherish it.
PRATAP: It’s my pleasure. These are for Vijaya and Suresh.
SEKHAR: I’m glad. Good night, bye,
SFX – Slamming sound of the door.
SCENE - 3
EXT – Sekhar self-drives his sedan into the corridor of the Krishna Oberoi and as he gets out of it, a hotel staff drives it away. Sekhar goes into the hotel lounge and takes the elevator to make it to Pratap’s room. SFX - Door buzzer followed by door opening.
PRATAP: Has she agreed?
SEKHAR: We’re going to pick her up on the way.
PRATAP: Can I thank you enough?
SEKHAR: No thanks, she didn’t need any persuasion.
PRATAP: What did she say?
SEKHAR: She said she would join us, no more and no less.
PRATAP: What of her tone?
SEKHAR: Rather dry I suppose.
PRATAP: Oh, come on, don’t tell me that.
SEKHAR: Did you expect her to jump for joy or what?
PRATAP: What to expect from the mistress when the messenger is so candid.
SEKHAR: Anything but coyness. I shall tell her I didn’t find you eager either. Why, I expected you in the lounge, waiting impatiently.
PRATAP: Know I’ve been trying all my dresses on me.
SEKHAR: Why bother about that, you don’t carry your age any way.
PRATAP: Why don’t you make her see me through your eyes?
SEKHAR: You may be better off with her eyes.
(PAUSE)
PRATAP: Chalo, onto the un-chartered course of love.
SFX - Sound track indicates the locking of the door, getting into and getting out of the elevator, opening of the car boot, opening and closure of the car doors and the speeding of the car.
SEKHAR: Are you nervous or what?
PRATAP: It’s a flux of fact and fiction.
SEKHAR: I feel she’s also in a similar fix.
PRATAP: (V.O. a car horn) Now I’m really nervous. Maybe, raised expectations, oh, what an irony life is!
SEKHAR: Perhaps, I’m too practical to understand all that.
PRATAP: Life worries you less as you miss much of it.
SEKHAR: But business worries you no less
PRATAP: But anxieties of love are wearisome.
SEKHAR: Didn’t Faiz say there are worries in life other than the love-induced and there are fulfillments too other than love-making.