Yellaiah: Well, they think we’re not entitled to our name even.
Mallamma to Narsimma: Bear all that for now my boy. Once you’re a B.A., all will call you Narsimma.
Yellaiah to Mallamma: I’ll sell my shirt to make him a B.A., and it’s my word to you.
[There is a commotion outside, and Sarakka exits.]
Sarakka[Reenters]: Maisaiah mamais being carried on a cart. Shaukar Saabis also there.
Yellaiah: Let me find out what’s the matter.
Mallamma:I’ll also come. Lachamma might need me.
[Exit: Yellaiah and Mallamma leaving Narsimma and Sarakka. Curtains down.]
Scene – 2
[Curtains up: Maisaiah’s body ‘in drawer’ laid in front of his hut in the dalit mohalla. Lachamma, his wife wails over it. Shaukar Suryam and two of his henchmen with sticks stand aside. Enter Yellaiah and Mallamma anxiously. ]
Yellaiah: DandaaluShaukar Saab.
[Yellaiah goes over to Maisaiah and sees he’s dead.]
Yellaiah: Shaukar Saab,how’s that Maisaiah died in his drawer?
Shaukar Suryam: YeraYelliga, are you questioning me?
Yellaiah: Is it possible ShaukarSaab. But what it means to die in one’s drawer?
Shaukar Suryam: Yedava Naayala stole my money. It’s only to make him open his mouth, he was stripped and beaten. But sadly for me, he died before coughing up.
Mallamma: Shaukar Saab, we’re poor but we’re no thieves.
Shaukar Suryam: That will be known now. [He turns to his henchmen.] Go in and see.
[The two go into the hut as directed.]
Mallamma: ShaukarSaab, there aren’t any attics in our huts to hide booty.
Shaukar Suryam: O, Mallamma, mind your own business or else.
Yellaiah: Don’t mind her words ShaukarSaab.
[Thrown out of the hut by the search party, some dented and unkempt aluminum vessels fall all over the place. In the end, as his henchmen appear with a cloth bundle, Shaukar Suryam is delighted, and the gathering is stunned. He eagerly unfolds the bundle and finds a plastic kiddy bank that he expectantly opens. But disappointed at finding only some small change, he throws the plastic on the floor, however, after pocketing the money. Lachamma takes the empty box, and wails inconsolably.]
Mallamma: Now what do you say Shaukar Saab? Why didn’t you make sure he really stole? Oh, how you’ve killed an innocent man.
Shaukar Suryam: I suspect he was at it all along. Naayaalamight’ve hidden it somewhere.
Lachamma: Oh, he was saving for his child in my womb but couldn’t save his own life. As I’m penniless, his child would be posthumous.