Part 25 (1/2)
akka says. ”The story of Gautami.
Veda will play her role as well.”
A little girl runs up to us.
”This is my kid sister, Leela,” Govinda says.
”I'm not a kid,” Leela says, hands on hips. ”I'm eight and a half.”
”Namaskaram,” I say, as seriously as I'd greet any adult.
”It's very nice to meet you, Leela.”
The entire cast surrounds us.
A pretty girl who looks my age, though a lot shorter, with dimpled cheeks and large eyes, extends her hand in friends.h.i.+p.
”I'm Radhika,” she says. ”Govinda's neighbor.”
After years of being envied at my old dance cla.s.s, after weeks of being whispered about at my school, I'm encircled by welcoming smiles.
JUST AS WARM.
When I tell them I'll be onstage soon (although with many others, playing just two tiny roles), Chandra whoops, Paati wraps me in her plush arms, Pa lifts me a foot off the ground, and Ma gives me a hug.
Not nearly as soft as Paati's but just as warm.
NOT EVEN.
an
OLD WOMAN.
My first part in the play should be easy.
All I have to do is hobble onstage with a cane.
But I don't even play an old woman well enough to please Dhanam akka.
”Buddha was born a prince,” she says. ”It was prophesied He could rule the whole world.
Yet when He saw your plight, He gave up His entire kingdom, His wealth, His power, His family.
You made Him yearn to seek a way to end all human suffering.
Your role in the play represents the pain of all humanity.
The sight of you-poverty-stricken, overcome by age and illness- turned Buddha from a mere man into a reincarnation of G.o.d.”
According to Paati's story there were four sights that moved Buddha: one old person, one afflicted with illness, a corpse, a monk whose face glowed peace.
But I don't correct akka.
My second role is even harder.
In my second role, I am Gautami, a woman who came to the Buddha with her dead son in her arms, begging Him to bring her son back to life.
Wiping the tears from her cheeks, Buddha asked her to bring Him a mustard seed from the home of a family that had never suffered.
Gautami left her son's body at His feet and went from house to house, searching for a family that had not known pain.
No family could give her a mustard seed because every family had seen sorrow.
Instead, they gave her comfort and shared tales of loss.
Speaking and listening to stranger after suffering stranger, Gautami saw that death came to everyone and she accepted the tragedy that had struck her life.
Returning to where her son's body rested, she felt embraced by the compa.s.sion in His eyes.
Knowing that her son's soul lived on, Gautami cremated her son's body.
To play Gautami's role, I must show not only pain but also acceptance and peace.
After rehearsal, Radhika, who plays the Buddha's kind stepmother, pulls me aside.
”Akka's hard on all of us during rehearsals.