[Divya goes backstage.]
Ramya: You know he died believing I’m in love with you?
Deva: But is it so?
Ramya: [clutching at Deva’s arm]: Don’t you know?
Deva: Maybe, but I didn’t believe I could be so fortunate.
Ramya [sinking into his arms]: And now?
Deva [hugging her]: I can’t rejoice more.
Ramya: Don’t we owe it to him for making our dreams come true?
[Deva reaches out to her lips.]
[Curtains down.]
Scene - 5
[Curtains up: Ramya in the bedroom and Rajiv in the drawing room sofa both lay asleep.]
[Rajiv wakes up in a trance seemingly perturbed. He looks up at the wall clock.]
Rajiv: Oh God, it’s nearing six! Don’t they say early morning dreams come true?
[He goes into the bedroom to wake up Ramya.]
Ramya [drowsily]: What’s the matter?
Rajiv: What a dreadful dream!
Ramya: What’s new about it?
Rajiv: It’s a bad omen.
Ramya: O ho, damn superstitions.
[Ramya fails to get up, Rajiv moves into the drawing room after a good stare at her even as Rangaiah enters with a broom.]
Rangaiah: What’s wrong Rajiv babu?
Rajiv: I had a dreadful dream.
Rangaiah: Rajiv babu,are you not upset at the unexpected developments.
Rajiv: What happened to my life Rangaiah? It’s as if it has turned on its head all of a sudden. Oh, how I started snubbing Rau after our graduation and gave him enough hints that I had outgrown him? And imagine, he’s going to be a high court judge now! Still I would have held my industrial head high enough for him had I got my project grounded or took hold of Sampath’s unit. Since it’s not the case and as Nayak is bound to carry my failure to Rau, won’t he have a hearty laugh at my expense?
Rangaiah: Rajiv babu, are you not stretching things too far. Who knows, Rau babu may not be a fishing- in-the-troubled waters type.
Rajiv: Rangaiah, because you are a simpleton you think everyone is like you. Oh, how I’ve lost my face with Nayak and allowed Rau to have his last laugh. Why, is it not owing to Deva’s betrayal? Oh, how he had shamed me. Won’t I pay him back in the same coin? But how is the question. [He pauses to think] Why not hurt him where it hurts most.
Rangaiah: Don’t get carried away by your hurt Rajiv babu. I’m really worried as I recall that incident when you were at Rau babu’s throat for befriending Ravi whom you used to hate no end. It was only by chance that I could save him in the nick of time.