The Bombay Plays

  kamal: Would the wind be so restless if it knew?

  apsara: The moon then. Surely the moon must know.

  kamal: The moon, you say? But the moon has no light of its own.

  apsara: The grass knew. But someone cut it.

  kamal: If the stars knew, they wouldn’t shine.

  apsara: And if God knew . . .

  kamal: . . . would he compose this symphony of idiots?

  Pause.

  I can see that it’s going to be very easy.

  apsara: What is?

  kamal: Falling in love with you. Then having you crush my heart to bits.

  apsara: Ever so gently I will step on your red thumping heart and all that love will ooze like blood, and my mouth will water, because that’s what I was born to do.

  End of play.

  About the Author

  Anosh Irani has published four critically acclaimed novels: The Cripple and His Talismans, a national bestseller; The Song of Kahunsha, which was an international bestseller and was shortlisted for Canada Reads and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize; Dahanu Road, which was nominated for the Man Asian Literary Prize; and his latest novel, The Parcel, was a finalist for the BC Book Prize’s Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Governor General’s Literary Award. His play Bombay Black won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, and his anthology The Bombay Plays: The Matka King & Bombay Black was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama. He lives in Vancouver. Visit www.anoshirani.com for more information.

  The Bombay Plays © Copyright 2017 by Anosh Irani

  First edition: May 2007. Second edition: May 2017.

  Author photo © Nirmal Shah

  Playwrights Canada Press

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  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Irani, Anosh, 1974-, author

  The Bombay plays / Anosh Irani. -- Second edition.

  Issued in print and electronic formats.

  ISBN 978-1-77091-766-8 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-77091-767-5 (PDF).

  --ISBN 978-1-77091-768-2 (HTML).--ISBN 978-1-77091-769-9 (Kindle)

  I. Irani, Anosh, 1974- . Matka king. II. Irani, Anosh, 1974- . Bombay black. III. Title.

  PS8617.R36B64 2017 C812’.6 C2017-901357-2

  C2017-901358-0

  We acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.