Hey U

Curtain raises. Circus begins.

Voice in chorus:

"Men in uniform – prepared to lay their lives

For their nation, they’re ready to sacrifice

Trained to kill the enemies, dead

Red tilak on some of their foreheads

Painted by their mothers and wives

War will begin in a while

National anthem playing on the background

Filling the air with pride, all around"

Joker

"The red tilak looks so familiar, no? Wait a minute, where did I see this? Ah! I remember on the satis, who were burnt alive, and in the background, there would be music too... so satis would go to heaven...ah...I remember!"

Voice in chorus

"Hey U! Not a word anymore!

Don’t you dare remind us!

Of those primitive onerous omnibus

That is done with and over for sure

What a shame it was, that sacrifice

Of innocent lives"

Joker

"You see I don’t see any difference I am sorry. Do you think I should leave? For instance, I find this mindset very primitive dudes... you are still not able to find a mechanism to stop war, to function without weapons and arms. How’s this any different from those girls burnt alive?"

Voice in chorus

"Hey U! Not a word anymore!

With those unfortunate girls

You equate these noble soldiers

Don’t you dare compare!!!!!!"

Joker

"Hang on then... imagine what’s happening on the other side?"

Voice in chorus

"Don’t you dare compare!!!!!"

Joker

"Hee hee, then do you think I should leave... why don’t you let the soldiers and the men in uniform do something else...hmm... like working for the poor, for the environment...hmm there are quite a few things to do you know, which are far better than this delinquent game...you could stop this war, and any war for that matter."

Voice in chorus (a painful music is played on the background)

"How?"

Joker

"Talk to the dudes on the other side... you see there are no sides in this round world... hee hee...like there’s no horizon, hee hee... there’s no east, west...these are all conventions, not the reality you know... you see the sun? Does it set or rise? No, never... hee hee but yet we see and just because we do, doesn’t mean it’s true. So grow up...please?"

Voice in chorus (angry)

"You did not answer the question!!!"

Joker

"Well how would I know... I know nothing of anything you see... hee hee"

National anthem playing in the background

Filling the air with pride, all around

Voice in chorus

"You have no place here

In this pure, patriotic, pious atmosphere

A traitor, a betrayer that you are

You wanted to leave hey u?

We think you better do"

Joker

"Ok dudes...I think you guys are really angry with me... I have to be with the farmers... we found an interesting way to plough without fertilizers... we also invented a mechanism to purify the rivers and the air with prayer and energy...and you know what... we are a team where there are also these people who use the same red tilak, few dudes detest it but that’s okay... we are all working together to provide food and home to everyone in my country...your country sorry...(self-chuckles...when will I get my possessives right!) but we need soldiers like these you see? Standing there! Also we need money yaar and you’re wasting all this money and lives on wars, you go yaar...

Before you kill me,

Let me flee

For with or without those red tilaks on,

Like possessed morons

Do I want to die...

So bye bye"

Voice in chorus

"hey u... morons...u said morons?

to selfless souls as these?!"

Joker

"Aha! So you admire selflessness?"

Voice in chorus

"Doubtless, yes!"

Joker

"What if countries also did the same

Of neighbors they thought instead?

To wars morons I said, not to them

It won't suit your artificial caprice

For I know in this plastic mayhem

I need them for good, for growth and peace

For heavens, stop this war"

Times

Voice in chorus

"Throw this half-wit out

Before creatures like these would sprout

Creepers like you would in forests cry

We know everything of the likes of you, BYE!!!

You must thank your star

For we set you free"

Joker

"Hee hee...hee hee... hee hee"

Curtain falls. A soft voice is still heard in the background.

"Soldier O Soldier

brave sons of the soil

you sacrifice your life

your body, your soul dear

O my brothers and Sisters!

Wish as leaders

we could end this strife

for good, we know you have no fear

of death; we ask you to end your lives

for we cannot end wars, it's our failure

we measure your success

when your dead body lies

we salute you like this

year after year

thousands of years down the line

wonder if we could get over war crisis."

The joker suddenly appears popping through the curtain

"Long live the soldiers

because they can die

They protect us when we lie

asleep on our bed

sorry we cannot end the wars

we are the leaders."

Voice in chorus (in the background...running after the joker)

"Hey you... get out of here... just leave

Not a word of yours we believe

You neither respect our selfless soldiers

Nor do you our able leaders

Now you do not have the right to live."

The curtain drops.

Note:

1. Sati (Sanskrit: satī, also spelled suttee) is an obsolete Indian funeral custom where a widow immolated herself on her husband's pyre, or committed suicide in another fashion shortly after her husband's death. Mention of the practice can be dated back to the 4th century BCE, while evidence of practice by wives of dead kings only appears beginning between the 5th and 9th centuries. The practice is considered to have originated within the warrior aristocracy on the Indian subcontinent, gradually gaining in popularity from the 10th century CE and spreading to other groups from the 12th through 18th century CE. The practice was particularly prevalent among some Hindu communities, observed in aristocratic Sikh families, and has been attested to outside South Asia in a number of localities in Southeast Asia, such as in Indonesia, Vietnam. The practice was initially legalized by the colonial British officials specifying conditions when sati was allowed, then the practice was outlawed in 1829 in their territories in India (the collected statistics from their own regions suggesting an estimated 500–600 instances of sati per year), followed up by laws in the same directions by the authorities in the princely states of India in the ensuing decades, with a general ban for the whole of India issued by Queen Victoria in 1861. In Nepal, sati was banned in 1920. The Indian Sati Prevention Act from 1988 further criminalised any type of aiding, abetting, and glorifying of sati. Source: Wikipedia

2. Red tilak, also known as tilaka, In Hinduism, the tilaka (tikli or sheether harr in Bengali, tika, or tilakam or tilak in Hindi; Sanskrit: तिलक tilaka; Hindustani pronunciation: [t̪ɪˈlək]) is a mark worn on the forehead and other parts of the body. Tilaka may be worn on a daily basis or for special religious occasions only, depending on different customs. Source: Wikipedia

3. Yaar, friend