Editors’ note: The following are the final scenes of Afreen Seher Gandhi’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, set in modern-day Islamic India, which she presented as her honors thesis in the Theatre Department. The play recounts how eight years ago, Maha borrowed money from and signed a promissory note with Khizir, a friend and rival of her husband’s, forging her dying father’s signature, to pay for an operation to save her husband’s eyesight. Maha’s loving but overprotective and conservative husband, Ali, believes that the money was a gift from Maha’s father.
Characters
- Ali – 30 years old
- Maha – 26 years old
- Asha Baji – Maha’s longtime servant
- Noor – Maha’s and Ali’s young daughter
SCENE 18 – The Big Reveal
Ali storms in the living room from the main door and puts his letters away in the bureau. Maha enters behind him. They have just returned from the Eid party.
Ali: You shouldn’t have danced at the party with Dr. Sharma.
Maha: How could I have refused, Ali? It would have looked so rude.
Ali: I don’t care. Don’t give me your silly excuses.
Maha: So I should have said no? Told him to get away from me? Ali, he is such a close family friend. How would he feel?
Ali: He is still na-mehram for you, and you should not be seen in the arms of another man, let alone in public! So what if he’d feel bad?
Maha: He and Sara are the only dependable friends we have in Mumbai and so I am concerned about how he feels.
Ali: And since when have Doctor Sharma’s feelings become so important to you?
Maha: Now you are just being ridiculous, Ali. (Waves hand in denial.)
Ali: Ridiculous? Don’t forget that Allah has made me your protector, and, so, I have every right to stop you from making a fool of yourself and shaming me. If anything unfortunate were to happen to you, I’m the one who will be affected the most!
Maha: Ali, it was just a five minute dance. Why are you getting so insecure?
Ali: Insecure? (Scoffs.) Everyone was looking at me as if I was the most senseless husband ever! For God’s sake, Maha, (grips her) I didn’t think you were so immature. Did you once think about my honor and image in society?
Maha pulls away from him.
Ali: Stop pulling away from me! Look at me when I’m talking to you.
Maha tries to leave.
Ali: Stay here and finish this with me–
Maha: Ali, I’m not feeling too well.
Ali: (Calms down a bit.) Maha, are you expecting again?
Maha: (Irritated.) No, Ali, please let go, I’m really tired.
Ali: (Sarcastically.) Yes, the dance must have been really, really tiring.
Maha: Don’t forget to read your letters.
Maha exits towards her bedroom. Ali sits on the sofa and tears open the first letter. The letter paper is colored light blue. He reads it twice to believe what is written.
Ali: Maha! Maha!
Maha hurries in, a red shawl wrapped around her (the one gifted by Ali).
Ali: Maha! Is this true?
Maha: Yes.
Ali is shocked. Beat.
Maha: It’s true that I have loved you more than anything else in the world.
Ali: Rubbish!
Maha: It’s alright, Ali. You won’t have to save me! I’ll take the blame!
Ali: Oh, you’ll take the blame?! Oh, oh, then what am I worried about?! (With fake delight.) Everything will be just fine! My God, you’re just like a child – you have no i-dee-a what you’ve done!
Maha: Yes, I do.
Ali: No you don’t! You couldn’t! Eight years of our Nikaah – you who were my pride, izzat, my joy – now a hypocrite – liar – and worse! A criminal! Ugh! I can’t bear to think how you will rot in hell after what you’ve done, and you are acting like you broke a dish. (Beat.) I should have seen this coming. (Beat.) You’re just like your father – no morals, religion, or sense of duty! And this is how you reward me for protecting you all these years?
Maha: You? Protected me?
Ali: Don’t change the subject! You’ve ruined my future! Khizir can do whatever he pleases with me, and I will have to take it – all because of you! Our family has been shamed because of a ruthless, senseless woman.
Maha: When I am no longer in your life, you will be free.
Ali: Oh, more of your fine phrases. What good would it do to me if you were gone? Khizir can publish your story all over if he pleases. I might even be suspected of corruption! People will think that Ali Omar Shah was behind all of this and used you as a scapegoat! All thanks to you – you whom I have done nothing but pet and spoil all our married life! But of course (mocking) when you are no longer in my life, I will be free! Really, Maha, show yourself to a doctor!
Long moment of silence. Maha stares at Ali and he notices something new about her.
Ali: Take this shawl off! You don’t deserve it. Take it off! (Snatches it from her.) I didn’t buy this priceless gift for someone like you. I must make things right with Khizir. One way or the other, this must be kept a secret. As for us, we must live as we have always, but of course only in the eyes of the world. You can live here, in some corner of the house, but Noor will be kept far away from you. You are no longer fit to raise my child. I do not trust you anymore.
The doorbell rings.
Ali: Hide yourself Maha, perhaps it is Khizir. I don’t want him to see you.
Maha wipes a single tear.
Maha: Asha Baji! Asha Baji!
Asha Baji enters and Maha whispers something to her. Ali receives another letter at the door and tears it open.
Ali: (With fake delight.) Oh look, another love letter from Khizir! How wonderful! Maha, just leave my sight. I do not want to open this letter in front of you.
Maha exits towards the bedroom upstairs and Asha follows. Ali reads the second letter that he has just received from Khizir. He is happily relieved at the end of it.
Ali: Maha! Maha! Look what Khizir wrote! I’m saved!
Maha enters. She is shabbily dressed: with no make:up, and wearing a plain nightgown.
Ali: Maha, look! Khizir writes that he will not tell our secret to anyone; he regrets and apologizes for everything, and he even returned this wretched promissory note with the forged signature on it! Let’s just get rid of it first! (Tears the note.) There! Nothing can harm me now, I mean, nothing can harm the both of us now!
Maha: I’ve been fighting a hard fight these past few days.
Ali: Don’t get stuck on the negative Maha? It’s over, it’s all over! Our miseries have come to an end! Why that harsh look on your face? I have forgiven you. And I understand now that you did everything out of love for me and to protect me.
Ali tries to hug her tightly, but she does not return it.
Maha: Oh? You realize that now?
Ali: Yes! You loved me like a dutiful wife. You just took the wrong path to save me. But now I will counsel and guide you at all times. I’ve forgiven you, Maha, I really have!
Maha: I thank you for your forgiveness; that’s indeed very generous of you.
Maha tries to exit right. Ali holds her back.
Ali: Where are you going, Maha? Oh. You are upset because I asked you to take off the shawl, (Picks up shawl and hands it to her.) isn’t it?
Maha: (Refusing to take it.) Oh, Ali… Let’s just forget about this? I’m going to bed now. We can talk about this tomorrow.
Maha exits into the bedroom. Ali follows.
Scene 20 Nikaah
The next morning. Ali waltzes in the dining room happy and relieved. He sits on the table to read the morning news paper. There are two bags packed and kept in the living room area.
Ali: Maha! Maha! Please bring me some chai! I’ll get late for work.
Maha enters. She is dressed in her nightgown. She hasn’t slept all night.
Maha: When I was at my Abba’s place, he would impose his opinions on me all the time. About everything! Even if I disagreed with him, I hid my feelings, because he’d get very upset.
Ali: (Busy reading newspaper.) …hmmmmm… (Looks up.) Good morning. Let’s have chai, please?
Maha: He used to call me his songbird. It’s so funny… but I realized that I’m still just a songbird. But now I’m your songbird instead of Abba’s.
Ali: What…what are you talking about, Maha?
Maha: You always keep telling me that I’m like my father, but guess what? You’re the one who is just like my father. You decide everything for me, and I am forced to go along with it. When I look back at all these years of our marriage, I realized I’ve been living like a beggar, and I lived by performing tricks for you, Ali!
Ali: (Stands.) What nonsense, Maha? Aren’t you happy here?
Maha: No. I thought I was, but I’ve been lying to myself.
Ali: You’re not happy? (Scoffs.)
Maha: No, I just deceived myself into believing that I was content and happy with whatever made you happy and that you have always been so kind to me. But our house, it was nothing more than a cage. And I was the little birdie that you and Abba played with. At home, I was Abba’s songbird and here I was your little Koel. And as a result, our daughter has become my songbird. This has been our marriage, Ali.
Ali: Well maybe there might be some truth to this, but now it will be completely different. Play time is over, Maha, and now comes the time for education.
Maha: Whose education? Mine or Noor’s?
Ali: Both, Maha.
Maha: Oh, Ali, you cannot teach me how to be a fit wife to you.
Ali: And why do you say that?
Maha: Am I even fit to educate our daughter?
Ali: Maha —
Maha: Did you not say two minutes ago that you don’t trust me at all? I am not even fit to raise Noor!
Ali: I just said that in that heated moment. Why are you harping upon that one sentence?
Maha: Well, because you were wrong! The problem is not that I am not a good wife or mother, the problem is that I still need to be liberated. I need to open my eyes and enlighten myself. I realize that you are not the man who will help me solve this problem. I must set out to do this alone. And that is why—
Ali: That is why what, Maha, what?
Maha: That is why, Ali, we must separate. Our marriage must end for now. We can no longer stay under the same roof. Asha Baaji, Asha Baaji! Please bring all the stuff that I asked you to pack.
Ali: You’ve gone mad, Maha! You’ve lost your mind!
Maha: I have just come to my senses, Ali.
Ali: You mean to say that you are leaving me?
Maha: Yes.
Asha Baji brings a duffle bag and a carry-on and lays it next to the two bags near Ali.
Ali: You are leaving me, this house, and our daughter?
Maha: No, who said I was going to do abandon my house and child? I would never do that, not in a million years.
Ali: Oh, thank God, Maha, I am so relieved to hear that.
Maha: This doesn’t mean are marriage is still going to continue.
Ali: What? What do you mean Maha–
Maha: If someone will leave this house and Noor – it will have to be you, Ali. You, not me.
Ali: What?
Maha: Yes. Have you forgotten that father willed this house to me? Ali, this property is under my name. It is I who has been sheltering you, protecting you all this while.
Ali: You can’t be serious when you say that, Maha! I am proud of who I am- I am the bread winner of this house. I am a self-made man who has never turned to corrupt means to make a living.
Maha: (Gently) Ali, you would have no vision if it weren’t for me who scraped the money and had you operated on in time! (Beat) Yes, can you imagine your self-made self blind and miserable? Not being able to see Noor’s face when you hold her in your arms?
Ali: So, so, so you are ending this marriage because you think I was unfit for the sacrifice you made? Because I couldn’t repay you in the same way?
Maha: All I am saying is that this marriage isn’t going to work. I can’t live with you under the same roof anymore.
Ali: Maha, what are you saying? You’re turning me out of my own house? Have you forgotten the laws of our religion? Is this what Islam teaches women? To treat their husbands like shit and throw them out of the house after a small fight?
Maha: This is not one of our small fights, Ali, it just my sacred duty towards myself.
Ali: What rubbish? What duties are you talking about?
Maha: Am I not a human being, Ali, just as much you are? Don’t I have a will of my own? I know that your version of Islam is just what you think is right and proper and suits your needs. But from now on I shall not be satisfied with what you think, say, and believe. I will think things out for myself and try to be clear about them.
Ali: Are you not clear about your position in your own home? Do you not fear Allah? Have you no insight as to what your religion bids and forbids you to do?
Maha: Without you, I will look into all this as well. For now, my thoughts and beliefs have been clouded by your words. I will see if our religion is true for me, and what rights Islam gives women.
Ali: Maha, even if you fail to believe in our religion, let me appeal to your conscience- for I do suppose the woman I have been married to for eight years has some moral feelings, some ethics? Or answer me- do you have none?
Maha: It’s very easy for you to say these things now, Ali, according to you a moment ago, a woman had no right to spare her dying father or save her husband’s life. I don’t believe you anymore.
Ali: Maha, you’re talking like a child! Don’t you understand our society?
Maha: No, I don’t! But I shall try to, and make up my mind – which is right, society, religion or me. Leave, Ali, just go.
Lights fade as Ali picks up his bags and walks out of the door. Noor enters the room with Asha, and Maha (center-stage) lovingly picks her up in her arms.
Fade Out.
Glossary
- Nikaah: The Islamic Marriage contract
- koyal: a member of the cuckoo order of birds
- haraam: an act forbidden by Islamic law
- chai: tea made with milk, sugar and cardamom
- nikah: a Muslim marriage
- izzat: honor
Afreen Seher Gandhi is a theater major with a South Asia Concentration who is focusing on Directing and Playwriting. Afreen has acted in and directed plays in India, and this is her seventh direction piece at Smith. She wrote and directed Smith’s first South Asian play, ‘Family Duty,’ based on a short story by Nighat M. Gandhi. Her work also includes her direction of the first Indian main stage play for the theater department in Spring 2014 and her adaptation of Vijay Tendulkar’s ‘Kamala,’ based on journalism and human trafficking in 20th century India. Afreen would like to pursue an MFA in directing after Smith.
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