GANESHA

Written by

Gregory Dodds

For Alice and Henry

3330 S. Sepulveda #32 Los Angeles, CA 90034805 722 4674gregorymdodds@gmail.com

GANESHAa play

by Gregory Dodds

CAST OF CHARACTERS

YAMA, a gatekeeper god.PARVATI, a goddess.KUSHA, a warrior.PUSHA, an assassin.SHIVA, the destroyer.GANESHA, a boy.

ii.

ACT ONE

(Morning. A two-story city brownstone, with the suggestion of similar brownstones on either side. The first floor will reveal itself as a shop, but at the opening, the steel rolling doors are closed and locked.)

(SL of the store is a set of narrow stairs, leading to a bright red door. The door leads into the front room of a luxurious second-floor apartment. A long couch and several plump chairs. Two doors are set into the back wall of the apartment.)

(As the morning light breaks, a figure can be seen standing in the doorway, watching the street.)

PUSHA (O.S.)Parvati! Please help us!

(PUSHA enters SR dragging a wounded KUSHA, who clutches a bloody rag to his chest. PUSHA is a wiry, quick man, and KUSHA is a large powerful one.)

PUSHA (CONT’D)Have mercy on us, wise and beautiful Parvati!

KUSHAPlease. I am dying!

PUSHAMy friend has been hurt and his death is near. Please allow us in.

KUSHAHelp us, Parvati! All hail Parvati!

PUSHAOpen your door to us!

PUSHA (CONT’D)Ten of the Raja’s men bore their blades against us, and we found ourselves barely able to escape with our lives.

KUSHAShe doesn’t hear us. Call louder!

PUSHAThe gods always hear us. The goddess lives here on earth. She has some mercy for us.

(YAMA becomes visible. He is old and bearded, wearing a vest over a denim shirt, linen pants and slippers, with the air and trapping of a god. He brandishes a staff.)

YAMAStay back, peoples! You will not pass my lady’s door.

PUSHADoorkeeper! We have no time to lose. My friend here if badly hurt, and we have only moments to hide.

YAMASeek refuge somewhere else.

PUSHANo one will take us in! The Raj’s guards are following us, and are looking to finish us off.

YAMADo you know who lives in this place?

PUSHAOf course! We are here only to ask for Mistress Parvati’s help. Let us pass. (to Kusha) Stave off death a few moments longer, my large friend.

YAMADo you not know the story of what lies beyond that door?

KUSHAI have no time for stories.

YAMAIt will only take a moment of your time. Many a man has tried to gain entrance. Her beauty enchants all peoples who look upon her. She once lived on Mount Kailish, amongst the others gods. not only was she kind and beautiful, she protected the Book of the World. A prize which matched her beauty, for in its pages is writ the earth’s history, the order of gods, men and beasts.

Ganesha 2.

KUSHABeasts! I can see the ruby eyes and white teeth of the rats in the gutters, closing in!

YAMABut as she read the Book, she became fascinated with the peoples whose lives made up the stories. So, on her sixteenth birthday, she descended, and appeared on this very street in a veil to hide her radiance. But the veil came loose, and the every man, single or married, old and young, came toward her to woo her. She ran into this apartment here, and slammed the door. The men would not leave, and as their adoration turned to jealousy, violence broke out. Sixteen men were killed on the spot where we stand.

PUSHAPlease finish, or we will join their number.

YAMAI am almost done. Too ashamed to return to Mount Kailish, she remained here, in a humble room above a dirty street. But not all peoples can be trusted. Men from all corners of the World come here, only to gain entrance, to marry Parvati and hold the Book of the World. Immortality!

PUSHAMake an exception for us. If only to rest for a moment, and let me bind his wounds.

KUSHAPlease. I am dying.

YAMAI am sorry to see your friend hurt, but I cannot permit you entrance. I will allow no man up these stairs into her bower above. Not until the sun and moon share the sky.

Ganesha 3.

PUSHAYou have told us a story, now let us you one. Perhaps then, when you heart has been moved, you will offer us shelter.

YAMAMake it quick. I will not be distracted from my post. Do not expect me to be moved.

(KUSHA moans in pain.)

PUSHAWe are simple cooks, humble chefs in the royal kitchen. Tonight was to be a fine stew.

KUSHASuch a simple mistake.

PUSHAEach night, we prepare the Raj’s supper. Tonight was to be a fine nahari. And with the steam from the pots, the frying of onions, broiling of meats, and the heat of the day, we opened the kitchen window to just to cool off.

YAMAPoor peoples. Always eating.

PUSHAAnd through the window, seduced by the smells, crawled a single rat. And to get to the meat, fell into the stew.

KUSHAIf only we had known!

PUSHASo began a macabre turn of events. The nahari stew was brought to the Raja, and as he raised the spoon to his mouth, one of his wives cried out. The rat laid dead, hanging from his spoon.

KUSHAToo late!

Ganesha 4.

PUSHAThe Raja cried out for our blood but we escaped. My dying companion, larger and slower than I, was set upon by the guards and run through. A mistake, of course, but perhaps he will not realize in time.

KUSHANo citizen would dare take us in. Perhaps the house of the goddess might open its doors to us.

PUSHAAll men know of her beauty and wealth, and she lives amongst the peoples. She must feel some sympathies toward those less fortunate.

KUSHAHave pity, gateman.

PUSHAWe have no designs on your mistress, only to keep death and the Raja’s guards at bay.

YAMAI am no fool. You wish to enter Parvati’s chamber and make her your bride. To steal the Book of the World and put your own names on its pages. Yama will stand guard.

PUSHAWho is Yama?

YAMAI am Yama! Yama! No doubt you have heard tales of me, of my power and all-seeing eye! The merest gaze upon my visage is to embrace your reckoning, divining souls and the final reckoner of the Dead! Yama!

KUSHASomewhat familiar.

PUSHAI cannot say that I have.

Ganesha 5.

YAMAThe immortals cannot understand love, because they cannot die. So Parvati cannot live without you.

PUSHAThen let my friend live. If you allow us entrance, we would worship your mistress.

KUSHABe forever in her debt.

YAMAThat is why you may never enter. Now begone!

PUSHAThen if the sight of a man in peril will not open your heart, perhaps my blade can do it for you.

(KUSHA and PUSHA draw blades. PUSHA tosses aside his bloody rag. He is unhurt.)

KUSHAYou are outnumbered now, old Yama.

PUSHAI am Pusha, the light-fingered assassin, servant to Shiva. The sharpener of blades and picker of pockets.

KUSHAWe are not cooks at all. I am Kusha! I am he that fights with the fury of ten tigers, unafraid of death.

YAMAAh! Then you needn’t wait for death a moment longer. I am Yama!

KUSHAYama, your legend has gone cold, and your beard is flecked with gray.

(YAMA draws his staff and he fights both men at once.)

KUSHA (CONT’D)To one side, relic. We worship at the temple of Shiva, the Destroyer.

Ganesha 6.

PUSHAYou fight bravely for one in his grave.

YAMAYama will take away your false wounds to replace them with real ones.

(PUSHA and KUSHA are knocked to the ground.)

YAMA (CONT’D)Tell your like-minded brothers they shall meet the same fate. I am Yama! On your way!

(PUSHA takes his up blade and as he exits, takes a quick slash at YAMA, cutting his face. They run off SR.)

YAMA (CONT’D)No man shall enter this place. Spread the legend of Yama, you sad servants of Shiva!

(Lights up on the upstairs apartment. PARVATI appears at the top of the stairs, wearing a long, light embroidered silk bathrobe.

PARVATIWhat is the matter below, my good Yama? Is there trouble?

YAMANothing to trouble you, my lady. Interlopers at your door, but I have sent them off.

PARVATIMy Lord, you are hurt. Let me attend to you. Come inside, and let me examine you.

YAMAThe wound is nothing. It does not befit a queen to tend the wound of a servant.

PARVATIMy sweet Yama, come to me. I wish to see that you are not badly hurt.

YAMAI will do as you request.

Ganesha 7.

(YAMA climbs the stairs and enters the main room of PARVATI. He sits on one of the comfortable couches.)

PARVATIYour face has been cut. I see blood.

YAMAPeoples and gods alike may try to enter your chamber, but as long as I draw breath, or blood to spill, Yama will keep suitors at bay.

PARVATIThey did not shiver and recoil at first mention of the name Yama?

YAMAThey surely came from some foreign land, my Lady, from across the sea.

PARVATIOnce your name itself was enough to send suitors scampering from my door.

YAMATush, my lady! If they do not fear my name and legend, they need to hear the story of my staff. Have you heard the tale of its creation?

PARVATII have, but it is never the same twice. Oh, your face, Yama. It is deeper than I feared.

YAMAI am not a child and do not require mothering. I am as powerful as ever.

PARVATIThe schoolchildren who sang tales of your bravery are nearly dead and gone. The boys and girls sing of Shiva now.

YAMAShiva! Another young brute who believes himself the source of all that grows, lives and dies.

Ganesha 8.

PARVATIThey call him Shiva the Destroyer.I am told we have not seen his like. His arm is iron and he bears the moon on his forehead.

YAMAIf you desire another champion to guard your door, my Parvati, I will step aside.

PARVATII want you to stay. Your service and kindness to me has been infinite as your influence.

YAMAHmph. This is what I suspected.

PARVATII am to take a bath, along soak to consider my Fate and the future. I grow old, Yama, and in my age, I can see the future. What a shame to have so much less future to see.

YAMATake your bath without fear of molestation. I shall not waver in my duty. I am Yama!

(PARVATI disappears into the back. YAMA examines his face.)

YAMA (CONT’D)My mistress is right, this cut is deeper than I imagined, and a moment’s rest might prove beneficial. (Shuts his eyes and rests a moment.) What is this? Yama! You fool and lay-about! A rat does not rest in his quest for a crumb of cheese. Do you love your mistress less than a rat loves cheese?

(Yama goes downstairs to his post in the street.)

YAMA (CONT’D)I am Yama! Yama! No doubt you have heard tales of me, of my power and all-seeing eye! The sleepless one. On your guard, strangers!

Ganesha 9.

(Yama yawns, but stifles it. His half-slumber is interrupted by a blast of horns, gongs and an elephant’s trumpet OS.)

YAMA (CONT’D)What is this clamor? Loud enough to deafen the living and wake the dead. Another attack on our gates? My mistress will not care for this. Perhaps the empty-headed Raja has decided to walk amongst his people. But who is this?

(SHIVA arrives, with a trishula in his hand, and a crescent moon on his head. He rides an elephant steed, made up by the actors who play PUSHA and KUSHA. SHIVA hops off his steed.)

SHIVAShiva is here! Shiva has arrived! Rest, steed. We crossed a river back some leagues away. Return there and drink.

(The elephant rumbles its way offstage.)

YAMA(hiding his fear)

Shiva! He is far greatest in size, power and virility than I had expected possible. But if I am conciliatory and kind, he will move on to the next universe, or perhaps the next block. Great Shiva! All hail!

SHIVAAnd who are you?

YAMAMy Lord. I am Yama!

SHIVAWhat is a Yama, then?

YAMASurely, as your stride bridges continents, in your travels you have heard of my many names.

SHIVAI go by one name.

YAMAThat is Shiva.

Ganesha 10.

SHIVAShiva is my name!

YAMAWhat can we do for you, lord Shiva? Why have you blessed this place with your might and wisdom? Why do you walk out amongst the dust and sweat of peoples? Surely, your greatness deserves to stride the ether and rule Mount Kailish.

SHIVAI am Shiva!

YAMAPerhaps to see the sights of this city. Take in the lovely bridges over the river.

SHIVAI am the river and the bridge!

YAMATo take a mistress then, oh yes! To win a comely female through trickery and guile. Perhaps an animal transformation!

SHIVAShiva as a beast? To father a child, half-god, half-peoples? Shiva’s seed would swim upstream before entering a womb!

YAMAI am out of guesses, lord Shiva. Why have you come here, to this spot of all places in your infinite universe?

SHIVADoes not Parvati live in the filthy room above this abandoned store? The most beautiful, she holds the Book of the World. Shiva will put his name on the cover!

Ganesha 11.

YAMAYes, you are correct, great Shiva. The meager dwelling of Parvati lies at the top of these stairs and behind that door, but she has gone out, and I do not know when she will return.

SHIVAI have heard the legend of the beauty of Parvati, and how it killed sixteen men. This has impressed me. But I am not fooled, Yama. She does not leave this dingy flesh-fouled house.

YAMAThe miles can change the details of a tale. Why, even the name Yama may lose power in translation.

SHIVAShiva does not travel for he is already there! The face, the mirror and the reflection! All spaces are filled with Shiva!

YAMAShe is out, my Lord. I speak the truth, for your fearsome trishula could divorce my head from my neck in a breath.

SHIVAYour hand would shield your eyes from the brilliance of my blade and find no eyes to cover.

YAMAI could not lie to Shiva.

SHIVAShiva is the lie and the truth!

YAMAI do not know when she will return. Was she expecting you, great Shiva?

SHIVANo one need expect Shiva, for I am already there.

Ganesha 12.

YAMAIf you came back later, your luck may improve. I do not wish to waste the illustrious Shiva’s time.

SHIVAShiva is time! I hold time in my hand as a pebble. Observe.

(The lights go down, the moon sets, the sun rises. Time is speeding up. Lights up and down, up and down. SHIVA laughs at his power, while YAMA frets. Days and nights pass.)

YAMAI blink and I miss a day! I sneeze and a week passes!

SHIVADoes the spinning earth leave you queasy, Yama? Days, years, eons, all are the same moment to Shiva!

(Time slows to its normal pace.)

SHIVA (CONT’D)I have brought us a year hence, and your mistress has not returned. Explain yourself to Shiva!

YAMAShe is my mistress, and I am the guardian.

SHIVAYou? Her guardian!

YAMAParvati will invite no one into her chamber, and certainly not a brute.

SHIVA(brandishing his trishula)

First you attempt to deceive Shiva, then you dare insult Shiva, undoing of worlds? There will not be enough of you left to fill my pipe!

YAMAPlease! Do not unleash your anger upon me.

Ganesha 13.

SHIVAI am not angry, lord Yama. Shiva is forgiving of lesser deities’ imperfection. How could he not, when all he sees is imperfect?

YAMAThis is fortunate.

SHIVAThis is the finest day I have had in a great while!

YAMAThis is a happy surprise. What has cheered you so?

SHIVAThat you will fight Shiva! Do your assigned task! Bar the door from Shiva’s entrance. It is no great challenge to me to face a peoples, but if you are a god, as you say, perhaps you can provide a challenge to the great Shiva. I await the fury of your blows!

YAMAOh, the shame of it all! I lack the courage to strike, my Lord.

SHIVAUnleash the fury of your staff! You are a god, Yama. Do not fear your death.

YAMAIt is not death which I fear, but shame in facing it.

SHIVAThen step aside so I may enter.

YAMAI beg you, Lord Shiva. Do not enter my Lady’s chamber. She is the middle of her a bath, and will not want to be disturbed.

SHIVATo protect your maiden with womanly courtesies when your strength fails!

Ganesha 14.

(MORE)

If you fear death as a peoples would, then you are no longer a god, Yama. You are a peoples!

(A Thunderclap!)

YAMALet me remain a God! Show mercy, Shiva!

SHIVAYou are a relic in a shop! A rusty idol, sewing socks and trading niceties with ladies. Bury your head in the sands of time, the god which cannot defend a lady.

YAMAI am undone. There is no more Yama.

(YAMA scampers away.)

SHIVANothing stands in Shiva’s way.

(SHIVA climbs the steps and enters PARVATI’s chamber on the second floor.

SHIVA (CONT’D)I am Shiva! Shiva has come!

(PARVATI enters the room in her silk bathrobe.)

PARVATIWhere is my Yama, Lord Shiva?

SHIVAYou would like to hear your champion was bested in combat, and the last words on his bleeding lips were your name, but he could not find the mettle to draw weapon. He was tested and found unworthy. He is nothing but a man now. Hail Shiva, your new god!

PARVATIYou are a great fool.

SHIVAI am a great everything.

Ganesha 15.

SHIVA (CONT'D)

PARVATIWhy have you come to my chamber, Lord Shiva? What have you come to take which was not already yours?

SHIVAYou are Parvati. She who holds the Book of the World.

PARVATII was in my bath. State your business and be off, my Lord. You have annoyed me, and there is no greatest transgression a woman can bear that to be annoyed by a stubborn man.

SHIVAI am not a man, but a great warrior.

PARVATIAnd I a great beauty, what of it?

SHIVAI am to marry you, Parvati, and you are to be my bride. This home is to be my home as well.

PARVATII cannot hope to defend myself from you, and I must say Yes. I know your rage when you hear a No. When is the ceremony?

SHIVAThere is no ceremony. Shiva says it so, and it is. We are man and wife.

PARVATIThis is our courtship?

SHIVAYou have spent too much time in the company of peoples, Parvati. Gods do not court and serenade.

PARVATIIf there is to be no courtship, I will at least have a wedding, if nothing else.

SHIVATo ask whose blessing?

Ganesha 16.

PARVATIShiva, you truly are a fool. A fine wedding of the gods must have a fine story to match. There must be a celebration.

SHIVAYou husband cannot stay. I will go to the top of a frozen mountain, and begin a meditation. I do not know when I will return, but when I do, I expect your doors to be flung open to welcome me. Farewell.

PARVATIIf there will be no wedding day, at least do me the courtesy of filling a husband’s role as he does on the night of his wedding. Would you leave me with child before you go?

SHIVAShiva has no need for mewling brats around his feet!

PARVATIWould Zeus do such a thing? He who littered the earth with children.

SHIVAI am every bit the god that Greek philanderer claims to be.

PARVATIZeus cared not a moment for his wife and mistresses, but he brought forth children, and loved them.

SHIVAYou bore your solitude alone throughout these millennia.

PARVATIGreat Shiva, I beg you. To mold a child together will only take a fleeting moment of your time. I will bear him and care for him. I only require you to drop a single seed, great Shiva, and my soil will envelop it, keep it wet and feed and let it grow.

Ganesha 17.

SHIVAShiva will not fall prey to your charms. A humble mat of straw on the high mountain awaits.

PARVATIHow can a straw mat on the hard crag of a mountain top, all alone, compare with my warm touch?

SHIVAShiva is love! And hate! And indifference!

PARVATIShare the part of you that is love with your wife. Your partner who cares only to serve you and glorify that which brings life and death.

SHIVAShiva is worthy of worship by all. Shiva’s visage is terrible and glorious to behold.

PARVATINot only his visage, his sweet visage, but the majestic whole of Shiva. His shoulders which hold up the world, his powerful arms, hands and fingers which bear the trishula that plows up earth and makes stalks grow. Worship Shiva’s stomach, that rises and falls and gives breath to humanity, and his great spear itself.

SHIVAThis is deception!

PARVATIDo you not desire a goddess’s touch?

SHIVAShiva desires nothing.

PARVATIYou desired me.

SHIVAAnd now you are mine. A toy to put on the shelf.

Ganesha 18.

PARVATIYou could take a new woman every night, for whom this empty title of wife would have brought glory to their name for generations.

SHIVAYou are the only worthy choice for Shiva.

PARVATIYou have chosen to wive the one woman for whom your choice meant the greatest unhappiness. I cannot make you stay, but give me a child with whom to share this cell. Damn you, Shiva!

SHIVAWho shall damn me, Parvati?

PARVATIPlease, if I am your wife, I cannot take a husband or a lover.

SHIVATo be the wife of a god is the greatest honor.

PARVATIThen I shall become Kali! She Who is Black! I shall shed my garments of love and kindness, pour blood from my breasts, and don my black burial shroud and necklace of bodiless heads! I shall bring forth the Book of the World and tear the pages from its bindings! I shall be the old god, Shiva! Older than even you. I will kill all, all colors disappear into black, all names and forms shall disappear into me! You will rule, Shiva, but your kingdom will be a desert without sand.

SHIVAThis is quite a speech you have prepared for Shiva, my wife. It appears you have had much solitude and opportunity to practice it.

PARVATIYou drive me closer to Kali.

Ganesha 19.

SHIVAYou’ll become Kali when the sun and moon share the sky!

PARVATII will destroy everything. Mark me!

SHIVAShiva awaits your transformation. Prove to me the world means nothing. Become Kali. (A thunderclap. She cannot do it.) You love your peoples too much, but they understand nothing but fear. Nothing will love you, wife. Only fear you. Shiva will return in due time, and will expect your doors open wide. We shall seal it our agreement.

(SHIVA kisses his palm and holds it out to her hand PARVATI kisses her hand, and they clasp their hands together.)

SHIVA (CONT’D)Farewell, Parvati. Expect my return.

(Shiva exits down the stairs to the street.)

SHIVA (CONT’D)I am Shiva!

(BLACKOUT.)

Ganesha 20.

ACT TWO

SETTING: The next morning.

(Yama enters and sadly rolls open the shop doors, revealing fuchsia, orange and red fabrics, candies and religious icons.)

YAMA(setting up the stalls)

Oh woe is me! To escape Shiva, I took flight back to Mount Kailish, but to my dismay, I found myself, a guard, barred from entrance. No longer a god! The gods keep an eye on man, the man keeps his eye on the rats.

(YAMA holds up a cloth and folds it, placing it neatly into the pile. A rat squeaks and Yama chases it away.)

YAMA (CONT’D)Shoo! Another rat, chewing at my wares. I do not which deity was put upon the task of creating rats, but he was industrious. The handling of filthy coins and bills and the shooing of nibbling vermin! The life of a shopkeeper! But what choice do I have but stay close to my mistress and return as a lowly shopkeeper, endlessly taking stock of what I have and what I do not Woe is me! Alas, to my stock. Shoo!

(Yama disappears into the shop, chasing the rat.)

(In the half-light, a figure moves upstairs in the apartment, and now a second, smaller figure moves with her. As they descend the stairs together, PARVATI is revealed and with her, GANESHA, a young, wide-eyed boy of eleven or twelve, dressed in a impeccably white collarless shirt and shorts. He holds Yama’s staff. PARVATI has her head high, while GANESHA is nervous and disgusted.)

PARVATIGanesha, this is the world.

GANESHAI do not like this world one bit, mother. It smells. I want to go back inside.

Ganesha 21.

PARVATIBe patient. Have a sweet, my boy.

PARVATI give GANESHA a candy, who pops it in his mouth.)

GANESHAHow could this dirty world compare with my Mother? Hip-hip! That is where the world lies for me.

PARVATIListen closely. This blue cloak which covers us all: this is the sky. And that bright eye which you cannot bear to look at?

GANESHAThat eye in the sky. I cannot face it directly. It burns!

PARVATIThat is merely the sun giving all things life.

GANESHADoes this sun shine all day and all night?

PARVATINo, no. At night, the sun circles to the other side of the world, but it never leaves.

GANESHAHow do men stand it? Each moment a different moment. The sun in one’s eyes, and then no light at all? The street smells like dirt. Give me another sweet or I will leave.

PARVATIYou are the sweetest.

(She gives him another, as Yama tentatively re-enters from the back of the shop.)

PARVATI (CONT’D)My head is spinning! I love you, my only boy, my only joy.

GANESHAAs I love you, my mother. Sing to me a lullaby with my name as the chorus.

Ganesha 22.

PARVATINo, my son. I will now return to my bath, and you will guard my door.

GANESHAOutside here? I want to be with you! I shall wail if go!

PARVATIDo not be silly. I will be right upstairs. And you are the bravest and strongest. The most handsome boy, my child.

GANESHAI am strong, and handsome. I don’t fear anyone. (He spots YAMA.) On your guard, stranger! Who dares to foul my mother’s doorway? Prepare to meet a quick death!

PARVATIIt is only Yama. He can do no harm.

GANESHAI do not like him. His face is wrinkled and gray.

PARVATIBe respectful of my Lord Yama, Ganesha. He is my oldest friend.

GANESHAHe is no lord. He is peoples, and I do not trust him. Begone, beast!

PARVATILet me speak to him.

GANESHAI will listen to you, because you are my mother, I do not like it.

PARVATIYou are my sweet boy, so protective of your mother.

GANESHAGive me a sweet before you go. Hip-hip!

(She does and he gobbles it up. YAMA approaches PARVATI.)

Ganesha 23.

YAMAWho is this boy, my Lady? I do not remember seeing him enter and I have not seen him before.

PARVATIHe entered the world through me. Yama, this is my son. I have named him Ganesha.

YAMALord of All?

PARVATIHe is the Lord of all I know and all I feel.

GANESHANot so close to her! You stink!

YAMAThis pampered brat cannot be the child of Shiva!

PARVATIHe has no father.

YAMAA lover?

PARVATIAfter Shiva left for his meditation on the mountain, I went to soak my desperation and solitude in my bath. As I scrubbed my body, the floating grime on the surface formed into a face. The sweet face of a boy. As I washed, and the dirt from my neck, belly and breasts and formed a head to hold the face and a body to support the head. Soil from my arms become his arms, my legs his legs. And could speak.

YAMAA boy with no father.

PARVATIShiva would not give me a child, I made my own. Now I shall never know loneliness. After all my scrubbing, I am clean at last. A boy of my own!

Ganesha 24.

YAMAA new god, mistress! Goddesses do not give birth to peoples!

GANESHABow to me, peoples!

YAMAI will not bow to a god still nursing at his mother’s breast.

(GANESHA strikes YAMA, who falls to the ground.)

PARVATIBe kind, Ganesha! I have never been a goddess until today. I will worship him like a god, the same manner which a mother worships her son.

YAMACreators do not bow to their creations. Shiva will not like this.

PARVATII have someone who can stand up to Shiva, whose heaven is empty but for me, his mother. He will guard my door, my boy! He who bears no gratitude to Shiva for his life.

YAMAI will not flee from my guard again, were it given back to me. I could be a God again. An excellent one, too! Change me back!

PARVATIYama, it is in my Book and cannot be unwritten.

YAMAThat cursed Book! Sometimes I wish I could tear it up.

PARVATII do not blame you, poor Yama. No one could stand up to the brute strength of Shiva. No one but my boy.

Ganesha 25.

YAMAA peoples. What an insult. Once one is finishing eating and defecating, the day is already over. The bottom, the lowest of the low!

GANESHAI will guard your door, mother. No man shall enter.(to Yama) No man!

YAMA(aside to Parvati)

Do you think this wise, my mistress? Give it one last thought. Shiva is sure to return, and his mood will not improve should he find this boy in his path.

PARVATIYou are a creation of Shiva. All men are, all men but my boy, my little Ganesha. He shall guard my door. I have spent too long outside and the earth grows heavy on my skin.

YAMAI fear we may never see one another again.

PARVATIUntil next time, my sweet Yama.

(A HOODED MAN enters and begins picking through the items in the shop.)

GANESHABefore you go, mother, another sweet?

(Parvati obliges and exits up the stairs.)

YAMA(to the HOODED MAN)

Don’t touch anything! And do your stealing elsewhere. I was once a god!

GANESHAYou, a god? Ha! Only if the world was on its head, for you are a dog.

Ganesha 26.

YAMAHa! You cannot conceive the treasure that you protect.

GANESHAYou mean that book you were whispering about?

YAMAThe Book of the World holds the history of the Universe in its pages.

GANESHAWhat care I of the past? It is already gone. You are the past, Yama, and you smell like something died inside a sock.

YAMAWhat impudence!

GANESHAYou ran from your post. Now go help your customer. Go sell a trinket or two to that dirty monk before he steals from you.

YAMA(to the Hooded Man)

Yes, the boy is right. You’ve looked long enough, monk. Make a purchase or move along.

HOODED MANDo you have anything special?

YAMAOnly what you see, ordinary junk.

HOODED MANEvery store has something hidden inside, something of value.

YAMAOh, holy man! Everything here is plain, meant to be used once or twice, then discarded in the gutter.

HOODED MANAnd what of the rooms above? What lies there? Perhaps the jewel I seek lies higher to heaven.

Ganesha 27.

YAMA(aside to Ganesha)

Aha! Now we know his game, Ganesha. Watch while I send him away. (to the HOODED MAN) What business do you have with Parvati?

HOODED MANI am her husband.

(The HOODED MAN removes his cowl; it is SHIVA.)

YAMABoy! Come away now! Great Shiva has returned! Take refuge here amongst my stalls! He awaits the right moment for your cut out your middle.

GANESHAYou have made a mistake, monk.Get lost! This is the house of Parvati.

YAMA(from his hiding spot)

Fall to your knees, boy! Do not address him such!

SHIVAYou are a young boy without two hairs on his chin. Let it not be said that Shiva is not without patience, mercy and forgiveness. My excursion to the cloud-topped mountain, sitting atop my simple straw mat has tempered my rage. Let me pass, boy, and all is forgiven.

GANESHAYou do not frighten me as you frighten the others. Choose any other part of this city and bore them. Or perhaps to the city cemetery, so you may return your rags to the corpse from which you stole them. Hip-hip!

YAMAI cannot look!

Ganesha 28.

SHIVAI am impressed, for even gods step out of my path. Am I right, Yama, hiding beneath your cloth?

YAMA(from behind the stalls)

Entirely, Lord Shiva.

SHIVAWhat is your name, boy?

GANESHAGanesha.

SHIVALord of all. Such a large name for such a scrap of a boy. Who named you such?

GANESHAMy mother, Parvati.

SHIVAParvati is your mother?

YAMAThis has done it.

GANESHAShe is. I am her child and servant.

SHIVAParvati is not your true mother, but the goddess mother of all children. This is what you mean.

GANESHAThe beautiful Parvati is my birth mother, and you are a nuisance.

SHIVAThis does not anger Shiva. Who was it? Krishna? Rama?

YAMANo sooner is he back from his retreat, then his rage returns.

SHIVAWho has entered my wife’s chamber?

Ganesha 29.

GANESHAI do not know these men, be they men, but if they have, you shall not follow.

YAMAHere it comes.

SHIVAI am no man! I am Shiva the Destroyer! Faultless! Unborn! With the moon on my forehead and sun as my eye!

(SHIVA takes up his trishula and swings at GANESHA, who parries the blow with the staff.)

SHIVA (CONT’D)(in a fury)

Shiva has never left, for he is everywhere! Shiva is everything! He does not share his land, his world, his wife.

YAMAParvati! Mistress! Shiva has returned!

SHIVANo scrap of flesh will turn my wife into a mere mother, and leave his sticky sugary handprints on the pages of the Book of the World!

(PARVATI appears at the top of the stairs, terrified.)

PARVATIShiva, my husband! Do not touch my boy!

SHIVAHe bars the path of Shiva from his home! He dares sit in my chair when my head is turned! An unfaithful wife and a insolent child!

PARVATIKneel, Ganesha, and he may spare your life!

GANESHAKneeling to this intruder is no life. This impostor! This usurper! This gate will never go unguarded!

Ganesha 30.

(GANESHA swings his trishula again at SHIVA, who easily parries it.)

SHIVANo boy will take my place, not when I am everywhere.

GANESHAYou are everywhere, so you cannot move. You are both day and night, so you are never. You are all things, so you are nothing!

(SHIVA’s swing cuts GANESHA’s head from his body.)

SHIVAThen you shall be nothing!

(PARVATI cries out from above. SHIVA picks up the head and flings it away. PARVATI races down the steps to hold her child’s headless body.)

PARVATI My boy! What is this? By whose grace do you commit this deed?

YAMAI warned him, my lady. He would not listen.

SHIVAHe barred the entrance, wife. No one blocks the entrance of Shiva.

PARVATI Unending horror! My boy! I foolishly believed you could take nothing more from me.

SHIVAThis is my home! No one shall keep the great Shiva from his home.

PARVATIOh my boy, let my arms make you whole!

SHIVAShiva gives all, takes all!

PARVATIYou have taken my greatest work and my greatest joy.

Ganesha 31.

(MORE)

And you haven’t the right to take his life. My son, so cruelly subtracted.

SHIVAI see guards equally, all obstacles equally. Man, nor beast, nor mountain stands in my path. A boy does not tell a man what to do, let alone one of the gods.

PARVATIPity us gods, for we have no one to pray to.

SHIVAYou asked me for a child, and I refused.

PARVATII built him on my own, and now he is gone. My son, my greatest prize!

SHIVAWhich you won, and have since lost. He did not belong to you.

PARVATII bathe for days, Shiva, but I emerge from my bath feeling as foul as I ever did. And I shut my doors to all bearing welcome. And even you, who forced yourself upon me, could not bear me the moment to give me a child. My Ganesha took the bad from me and made it good!

SHIVAThose who dare to stop me will shake hands with the biting points of my trishula.

PARVATIMy poor Ganesha! He was a child, not even a man. Young men are sloppy with their words and most quick to their heels. He should have fled as my servant had, but this boy blocked your way and did not waver in his duty to his mother. And for his bravery, Shiva leaves my sweet child’s head and shoulders estranged. My sweet boy! Oh! Oh god!

Ganesha 32.

PARVATI (CONT'D)

SHIVATry your luck again, Parvati. Try again to break the stone heart of Shiva. Your tears are not for this sad dead boy, but for yourself, who are cursed to live. I am Shiva! Shiva! (slaps forehead) Once again, I am furious! Now I must being again, and I will return for another meditation. I thought I had transformed to something greater.

PARVATII too can transform. You have taken my voice away, my eyes, my heart. If murder is a trifle, all trifles will be murdered.

SHIVAHow much can a mother love her child when she offers him to be sacrificed? To guard her bath? A silly boy born of his silly mother.

PARVATIMurder! Treason! Beast!

(PARVATI becomes KALI, the dark goddess with a tongue of fire and one hundred heads on a necklace around her body, the Book of the World in her hands. She is burning. She takes up her son’s headless body. The sky blackens and the walls of the buildings shake and catch fire. The world is ending. She tears pages from the Book.)

PARVATI/KALIBehold the mother of doom, the wet nurse of destruction. The world will crawl back inside my womb. Blood! Woe! Poison! If nothing is forbidden, great Shiva! Then all things are forbidden. If anything can die, everything will die. You have killed my child, and as the universe is your child, it shall perish too.

(The noise and darkness descends everywhere.)

YAMAShiva! You must stop her! I have not seen this incarnation before. She means to dissolve everything into her blackness.

Ganesha 33.

SHIVAShe is bluffing, meaning only to frighten Shiva, She has threatened this fate before. I will see the sun and moon share the sky before she fulfills this dark promise.

YAMALook upon her, Shiva! Does she not appear to be in earnest? She does not do this to punish you, but to punish the world which fears you.

PARVATI/KALI(dancing as she holds her son’s body)

Oceans! Flow back up into your rivers! Birds, fly home backwards and crawl inside your eggs! May the funeral pyres spit out their corpses to walk the land. All burn! All weep!

SHIVAI will cut her head off as well.

YAMAWhere is your trishula, Shiva? Your terrible weapon.

SHIVAIt has gone missing! I cannot find it!

PARVATI/KALI(still dancing)

Unwind the blue fabric of the sky and swallow the threads! Suck the salt from the rocks and oceans. The letters of the alphabet dwindle to twenty, then ten, then one! Come into your mother’s arms, world, and be consumed. A baby who suckles on the bloody teat of the dead.

SHIVAWhat should I do, Yama? You know her best.

YAMAI do not know this creature at all.

Ganesha 34.

SHIVAI can do nothing. What shall I do? Yama, tell me what to do?

YAMAI am cannot stop her! Your time in silent meditation on the mountain, where your found your peace. Use this knowledge now before it all is dust!

SHIVAShiva will try. Hear me, Parvati, if you can. Forgive me. I have wronged you and will do right.

PARVATI/KALI(with rising power)

Right and wrong devoured!

(The noise of destruction grows louder.)

SHIVAHold your anger! I shall stay by your side, and be a proper husband.

PARVATI/KALIFar and near devoured! Woman and man devoured!

SHIVAI shall turn today into yesterday, and restore what has been cut.

PARVATI/KALIToday, tomorrow and yesterday devoured! Weak and strong devoured! All!

YAMAThrow yourself at her feet, Shiva! Stop her dance!

(Shiva, in desperation, throws himself at her feet. Parvati dances on his back and cries out.)

SHIVAPlease! Have mercy! I will bear your weight! Dance on my back before your finish your dance of death across the cities of the world!

Ganesha 35.

(Slowly, slowly, the dance subsides. The light returns. The noise dies away. KALI becomes PARVATI once more, but remains standing on Shiva.)

PARVATIParvati has returned.

SHIVADo not destroy the world. I can make this right.

PARVATIShiva, you have a habit of interrupting me.

SHIVASo that there may be a world to rule. I know now.

PARVATIWhat do you purport to do? How do you suppose to return my boy to me?

SHIVAMay I get up, my wife?

PARVATII wish to hear how you will complete this task.

SHIVAI flung the boy’s head a great distance, and I know not where, but I will find it, bring it back and replace it.

PARVATIDo you intend to merely make right what you have undone? You made many other promises as well, Shiva. Do you remember, in our arrangement? That you will stay by my side. That you will be my husband.

SHIVAYou cannot wish for me to be your husband. I will fix your boy, and I will not trouble you again.

PARVATIWhen you entered my chamber and called me wife, you were too stupid to know what that word means.

Ganesha 36.

(MORE)

I did not fight you and accepted this title without complaint. I am your wife.

SHIVAAnd I am your husband.

PARVATIThen as my husband, great Shiva, your first task is to find the head of my son, Ganesha, and place it back where it belongs, atop his shoulders. In one year, you will return with my boy made whole, and you will behave as a husband should. On the sunrise of the last day, Shiva, I do hope that you bear with you twice the number of heads with which you left.

SHIVAWhat will you do?

PARVATII will be in my bath.

(Parvati exits up the stairs. Yama comes out of his hiding spot behind the stalls.)

SHIVAFriend Yama.

YAMAOh no, Lord Shiva. I must tend to my shop.

SHIVAYou saw the boy and I fighting.

YAMAI did.

SHIVAAnd you saw me cut the boy in two?

YAMAI did.

SHIVADid you happen to see the direction in which Shiva flung this head? It would be a great help, for I threw it far but paid no heed to the direction.

Ganesha 37.

PARVATI (CONT'D)

YAMAI don’t know, Lord Shiva. Now my shop, I must chase off the rats.

SHIVAI do not want to look for this head. It is gone.

YAMAI fear you have a great many days and nights searching ahead of you. Best of luck.

SHIVAWhen Shiva throws something away, it stays away.

YAMANothing can tear mothers and their sons apart, once have known each other’s embrace.

SHIVABut I am the husband. What of the husband?

YAMAA man makes a woman his wife, but a child makes her a mother. You cannot reason with a mother.

SHIVAYou know a great deal of the ways of women, for a shopkeeper.

YAMAHaving been both people and god has taught me the joys and pains of both.

SHIVAWith my godly strength and your peoples wisdom, we shall cover the globe in no time. And you shall join me on my quest. Your shop is closed, shopkeeper. Garapati, come!

(The elephant, Garapati appears and Shiva climbs aboard.

SHIVA (CONT’D)Lead us on, most loyal companion. Climb aboard, Ganesha!

Ganesha 38.

(The headless body of Ganesha stands and joins Shiva on the elephant.)

YAMAI will only be a burden on your travels. I have only my feet.

SHIVANonsense, good Yama. You are too valuable to leave behind, caring for a mere shop.

YAMALet me climb aboard Garapati, your steed, and we shall search together. Climb aboard, Ganesha!

SHIVAA peoples, sitting aboard Garapati? Never!

YAMAMy feet will slow our search. I will need to rest, to eat, to leave my refuse. Too hasten the time -- and would not Parvati be pleased if our search only took hours instead of years -- perhaps you could turn me back into the god I was. These are special circumstances.

SHIVAI would not unwrite it, even if I could. We must search every dark corner of the world. Men are like rats, crawling inside holes the great Shiva might otherwise miss.

YAMABefore we go, let me lock up my shop and settle some earthly affairs. I will be robbed blind. Even a lowly shopkeeper has responsibilities.

SHIVALeave this world behind, Yama. Let us go, around the world if need be! No time to lose! I am a husband now! Yes, a husband. And I owe it to my wife, the lovely, patient, merciful Parvati, to make her son whole! Off we go!

Ganesha 39.

YAMAWait, Shiva! Just a moment!

SHIVAWhere to look first, Yama? Where to look first?

YAMAWho knew the world I once ruled was so large?

(SHIVA and GANESHA exit on the elephant, and YAMA trails behind.)

(BLACKOUT.)

(END ACT TWO.)

Ganesha 40.

ACT TWO

(A year later. Just before morning. Same as before.)

(YAMA staggers in, his clothes in tatters. He is exhausted.)

YAMAHome at last. Around the world six times, never resting, searching for the missing head! Shiva will speak of anything but the head, Parvati will ask of nothing but. As ferocious as Shiva was as Great Master of the World, he is doubly the taskmaster on the errand of his wife. This is the bottom!

(YAMA plops on the ground, exhausted.)

YAMA (CONT’D)I thought owning a humble store was the lowest of the low. But the shopkeeper stays in one place, from bed to breakfast table to shop to bed once more. Once a god, then a shopkeeper, then a pointer-dog on a hunt for his own tail. Shiva will bear Parvati’s wrath once she hears we have come up empty. And yet, he plays the happy hunter, a look on his face one might mistake for joy. And here is the brute now, still singing and trumpeting.

(SHIVA entering, riding his elephant with a headless GANESHA riding behind.)

SHIVAShiva has arrived! Here we are, Shoulders.

(SHIVA climbs down from his steed.)

YAMANo one is here to welcome us. We have circled the globe, Shiva, and not found a hair of the boy’s head.

SHIVAShiva never fails his task!

Ganesha 41.

YAMABut we have failed, great Shiva. I will close the shop and find a ditch to lay in, content to wait out Armageddon.

SHIVAOnce more around the world, I think! While our first six revolutions have been unsuccessful, perhaps seven will be our lucky number!

YAMAAround the world once more? I can go no farther.

SHIVAShiva has listened to your complaints and gripes for a year now, and you found the will to go on. The boys’ head must be Pick yourself from the ground, and follow me!

YAMANo, Shiva!

SHIVANo?

YAMANot one step further! If you will strike me dead, do it here, at least in familiar dust.

SHIVAParvati has set me on a task.

YAMAChoose any head at all! A warrior, a shopkeeper, the great Raja himself. The head of a priest even, god forbid! If you fear her.

SHIVAShiva fears no one and no thing, for Shiva is all things!

YAMAYou threw yourself at her feet - you feared her!

Ganesha 42.

SHIVAHer power was tremendous, Yama! To imagine that Kali itself resides inside her!

YAMAYou talk like a fool in love, Shiva.

SHIVAShe drove me to my knees, onto my belly. My nose in the dirt. Shiva’s anger is most terrible to behold, but it is a candle compared to the inferno of a woman’s rage. She would burn the world to spite me.

YAMAHa! Ha! Yes! You are in love! The great Shiva is in love!

SHIVAIt is the first time in a great while I have not gotten what I wanted. I did not care for it, and I like it!

YAMAYou have spent the last year as her slave, at her bidding, and smiling all the while. You have fallen in love with your bride!

SHIVALectures on love, from a peoples! Let us hear of your newfound love of food, stomach never full, mouth never empty. What do you love more than a dry hole in a rainstorm? On your feet!

YAMAI did not fight the boy, Shiva. I did not insist upon access to Parvati’s chamber or lop off his head and fling it away. My troubles began when you arrived at my mistress’ door.

SHIVAMind you tone, Yama!

YAMAYou’re nothing but a bully.

Ganesha 43.

SHIVAThis is the last you will speak of this, Yama. We are off, do not fall behind.

YAMANo more! My fingers frozen from the cold of the north, feet scorched from the heat of the desert sand, and my body bruised and broken as I followed your godliness over mountains and jungles. My body is broken, I have nothing left but my voice.

SHIVAThis is the last from you!

YAMAThen take my life, Shiva! At least I will die a man!

(SHIVA turns YAMA into a rat.)

SHIVANow you will live as a rat!

YAMAAt last! The bottom! Is there no end to my torture? Oh my whiskers and paws! I hope there are no cats around. But my belly, it’s even more empty than before! Turn me back, Shiva!

SHIVAYour transformation is written into the Book of the World.

YAMAWho will worship me now, but the fleas on my back? I am so hungry! A crust of bread, an orange peel, a piece of parchment. Does the great Lord Shiva carry a bit of cheese in his mighty pocket?

SHIVAEnough chatter, or I will make you flea, and you will worship rats.

YAMANo, Shiva! Do not make me a flea!

Ganesha 44.

PARVATI (O.S.)(within the upstairs chamber)

Who is there?

SHIVAHer voice! The sounds I have anticipated and feared.

PARVATI (from within)

I trust you return with good news.

SHIVAShe has heard your ratty chattering. One last time: you saw no sign of the boy’s head?

YAMANot a sniff. And I find myself endlessly sniffing. Every head we saw was firmly attached to a pair of shoulders.

SHIVAShoo, rat! Find a hole to burrow inside and some paper to nibble upon!

(YAMA the rat scurries away into the shop.)

SHIVA (CONT’D)(to GANESHA)

Come to my side, Shoulders.

(GANESHA climbs off the elephant and joins SHIVA by his side.)

SHIVA (CONT’D)I know you have no ears, but listen closely. Every god is joined by a familiar, a noble steed to bear him above the crowd. And you know my steed Garapati, this gentle but powerful beast here. He is wise and kind - traits not often attributed to Shiva.

PARVATI(from the window)

I am dressing and coming down, and you will have ready what you promised.

Ganesha 45.

SHIVAFor want of a human head, I give you his.

(SHIVA removes the elephant’s head and places it on GANESHA’s shoulders.)

GANESHAI am awake! Here I am! Hip-hip! Thank you, my father! I was asleep, and I believe I dreamt, but I cannot be sure. I saw you, and you removed head, or was it my body? I do not know. I went two directions at once. A most remarkable sensation. I am so grateful! Here is my father, where is my mother?

SHIVAI am not your father.

PARVATIHere I come, Shiva.

SHIVAAnd here she comes. Perchance the days have cooled her anger, but her expression tells me it has not.

(PARVATI comes down the stairs. SHIVA hides GANESHA behind him.)

PARVATIWhere is my Ganesha?

SHIVAI have circled the earth for you, my wife. A full year’s search. Do I not deserve a welcome?

PARVATII bear welcome only for my boy.

SHIVAHow lovely you are this morning. Your crown keeps the sun from rising in envy. It is not yet dawn.

PARVATINot a single word has escaped your lips that gives me the slightest confidence you have done what you promised.

Ganesha 46.

SHIVAShiva will not disappoint.

PARVATIYou cannot sell me what I already own. My instructions to you were quite clear, husband. Where is my child, Shiva?

SHIVABe patient! There is a tale is worth telling.

PARVATIMen and their tales!

SHIVAWe began our search in earnest with the oceans, skimming across the waters of the world, looking signs of his face, asking both fisherman and fish. We journeyed to the floor of the sea, where no light shines.

PARVATIThen did you find the head?

SHIVAIt was not there. But there’s more! Then to the great deserts we travelled, without rest. I looked beneath every grain of sand, east to west, looking for the boy’s head. We beseeched the desert sun for guidance, but he spoke in blazing silence. We dug into the Pharaoh’s tombs, found great piles of gold and mummified cats.

PARVATIThen did you find the head?

SHIVAWe delved deep into the sweaty jungles of the night, under great leaves the size of elephant ears, peeking between the coils of the constrictors and amongst the jaws of the tiger. We asked the moon, but she shone on without speaking. We searched the icy scalp of the north pole.

Ganesha 47.

PARVATINo more lies and diversions! Have you the head or not? Has my boy returned whole or not?

GANESHA(appearing from behind SHIVA)

I am here! I am awake!

PARVATIWhat is this oddity? This freakish monster? Do not embrace me!

GANESHAMother! I have missed you so! I believe I dreamt of you, but I cannot remember the dream.

SHIVABehold! Your little Lord Ganesha is whole!

(GANESHA embraces PARVATI.)

PARVATIDoes Shiva wish to rule the cosmos with a cruel sense of humor?

SHIVAIt is not what it seems, my wife.

PARVATIYou have made a half-thing of my child.

SHIVALeave me with a son, you said. Cast out my dark loneliness with the light of a child. And here he is!

PARVATIWho is this beast?

GANESHAIt is I, mother! Your boy, Ganesha returned to you.

PARVATIWhat has been done to him, Shiva? Where is his human head?

Ganesha 48.

SHIVADo not be angry, wife. He is still your boy. Still your loving Ganesha. His human head was nowhere to be found. Every inch of the earth was scoured for it.

PARVATIYou have made my boy into a monster!

SHIVAThe elephant is hard-working, clever and loyal. Just as your boy was.

GANESHAMother, why will you not return my embrace?

SHIVAHe wishes to return to your arms. Allow him in.

GANESHAThank my father for putting me back together.

PARVATIThis is Ganesha, but this is not him. He smells like my boy. A mother can smell her son a league away. But his face is horrible! Tusks and a trunk? I cannot love him.

GANESHAMother, it is I! Your little Ganesha.

SHIVABetter than before!

PARVATIBetter? What can he do with these tremendous ears?

GANESHAWith these ears, I can hear your heartbeat a world away, as if I was against your chest. I hear tears and laughter from around the world.

Ganesha 49.

SHIVABetter than before!

PARVATIWhat to do of his tiny eyes?

GANESHAWith these tiny eyes, I can see into the hearts of men, their hopes and dreams. I see your relief and bewilderment, I see Shiva, my father, relieved and bewildered as well.

PARVATICan you not see this ridiculous appendage on your face. He will be will mocked him as he walks the streets!

GANESHAWith this trunk, I lift all obstacles before my path out of the way. For myself and others!

SHIVAEven better! Are you not satisfied, my wife? I broke the moon, but I bring you the sun!

PARVATIIt is not enough.

SHIVAThere’s more! Peoples will thank him before you or I. Every prayer will begin with the name Ganesha! Take him!

PARVATIThis is not Ganesha!

SHIVAYou are his mother, and he is your son.

PARVATII will not take this creature into my home. My dead son’s voice will rouse me from sleep, and I will rush to his room to find a beast staring back. You have failed me, Shiva. You have failed the world, and it must end. Kali will return!

Ganesha 50.

GANESHADo not end the world, mother, for I have just joined it. Show your mercy. Show your love.

PARVATII will not love him. Kali returns.

SHIVANo, my wife. Show mercy!

(A thunderclap! SHIVA cowers, but PARVATI cannot make the change.)

SHIVA (CONT’D)Is this it? Is this what the end looks like? It is like the middle.

GANESHAAnd the beginning.

PARVATII cannot do it. This is not my boy, but the part of him that is still alive stems my rage.

GANESHAAm I your boy?

PARVATIYou are not. My boy died at the edge of my husband’s weapon, and this has been written into the Book of the World and cannot be changed. But my heart would break daily to see what you have become. I will climb the stair to my tiny dirty rooms and stay there until the cosmos snuffs itself out. I will pass my time barren - not man, God or beast can save me now.

SHIVASo the world is safe? You will not end it?

PARVATIWhy destroy it? It is already gone.

(She walks up the stairs and shuts the door.)

SHIVAShe has shut me out!

Ganesha 51.

GANESHAMay I have a sweet, father?

SHIVAI am not your father! Cursed beast!

GANESHAYou made me. You are my father.

SHIVAYour mother made you - I will watch you until I can find a place for you, a school or a zoo.

GANESHAUntil when?

SHIVAUntil you can care for yourself.

GANESHAWhen is that?

SHIVAStop asking questions.

GANESHAI want to know. I am your pupil.

SHIVAI am Shiva! Destroyer of worlds! I have no time for a tagalong runt with teeth sticking outside his head.

GANESHAThen I will stay here.

SHIVAYou cannot merely stand in the middle of the street. Parvati will never forgive me for abandoning you.

GANESHAAm I a boy?

SHIVAYou do not look like a boy.

YAMAYou a half God and half beast.

Ganesha 52.

GANESHAThen perhaps I am a boy.

SHIVAPerhaps.

GANESHAI am learning a great deal. You are very wise, father.

SHIVAYes, Shiva is wise as well as powerful. So I have no time to tutor a tusk-faced brat! Had I not undone my Garapati to make you, I would be on the opposite side of the world already!

GANESHAThen I will wait here.

SHIVAYou cannot!

GANESHAThen I will go with you! Hip-hip!

SHIVAYou leave me in an impossible situation, boy! Again I cannot leave you or take you!

GANESHADo you hate me?

SHIVAI do not hate you.

GANESHADo you love me?

SHIVAThere is that word again! Shiva does not love. I respect your Mother, and her power. But I do not love. Choose your words carefully or you will meet the same fate as Yama!

GANESHAWhat fate was that?

Ganesha 53.

SHIVAYama defied me, so I transformed him.

GANESHAInto what, father?

SHIVACome along then. I will bear you in the same way I bore my Garapati, as a servant.

GANESHAWhat does a servant do?

SHIVAFollows my every command, unquestioningly.

GANESHAHow fun! I should like that!

SHIVAIt is not fun! It is a honor to be the servant of the great Shiva!

GANESHAMay I have a sweet, father?

SHIVAI say I will take you on as a servant, the highest honor, and you ask for a candy?

GANESHAI like sweets.

SHIVAA servant does not pester his master with requests for sweets.

GANESHAPerhaps when we are done with my tasks, I might have a sweet.

SHIVAYour tasks will never be done.

GANESHAHip-hip! Sweets!

SHIVAI said never! With such ears, I would think you would hear.

Ganesha 54.

GANESHAWhat is my first task?

SHIVAGo back to your Mother, and being her back to my side. Convince her to change her mind about me, that I am worthy mate.

GANESHALove is like a rope. It cannot be pushed.

SHIVAFollow my directions, boy! Or I will strike you, and continue to strike you until you do my bidding!

GANESHAYour arms will grow tired from striking me and nothing will change.

SHIVAA servant does not speak to his master such!

GANESHAI’m sorry, Lord Shiva. I do not know how a servant speaks. I can compose songs for you to sing to my mother, or gather poppies for her doorstep. But I cannot make her love, you or me.

SHIVAYou are a terrible servant, Ganesha.

GANESHAAre my tasks over? May I have a sweet now?

SHIVANo sweets! If you will not be my servant, then I will train you to be a god.

GANESHAI would like that as well. I do not know how to be a god, but perhaps I would be a better god than a servant.

Ganesha 55.

SHIVAThe training will be grueling and intense! After your bones and broken and your limbs sore and bloody, you will forget all about your candy.

GANESHAI am ready, father.

SHIVADo not call me that again! I am not your father!

GANESHAI’m sorry. It is the only way I have known you. You made me.

SHIVAYour mother made you, I tore you apart.

GANESHAAnd put me back together. Hip-hip!

SHIVAWe are talking in circles. You have worn me down. You may call me anything you like.

GANESHAI do not wish to make you angry.

SHIVAIf I am to be your father, and you are to be my child, it is your first and only role to be obedient. I am your whole world.

GANESHAI will do as you command. I am quite stupid, but I will try.

SHIVAWe will being training at this moment, and then, once you are worn down a bit, perhaps I may plan my assault on Parvati’s heart.

GANESHAYou are very wise, father.

SHIVAA question: What makes a god?

Ganesha 56.

GANESHAHis love for mankind.

SHIVAYes, you are quite stupid. A god is made by his power, young Ganesha! Peoples say they love their gods, but it is fear which drives them to the temples. Love makes them sleepy-headed. They get their love all mixed together: love of gods, loves of their fellow man, love of sex, love of parents...

GANESHALove of sweets! Hip-hip.

SHIVALove of food, yes.

GANESHAIf I was a god, that’s what I’d like! More sweets.

SHIVAThere are many loves, but only one fear. Peoples must fear you! You have quite a head start with that face.

GANESHAI will try.

SHIVAPeoples will fear you if they know you are everywhere!

GANESHAOnly love is everywhere.

SHIVAWhat are you prattling about? I should take off your head a second time!

GANESHAAnd what head shall I have this time? A peacock! A bull, perhaps!

SHIVAIf your head is filled with love and fluff, it is empty. And an empty head is the same as no head at all.

Ganesha 57.

GANESHAWhat of an empty heart?

SHIVAToo much talk. Let us begin with the training!

GANESHAHip-hip! I will train my hardest for you.

SHIVAFirst you shall develop your speed.

GANESHAI am not fleet of foot, my father. The beast part of me is slow, but it is steady.

SHIVAIt will take a great many years of study but you will learn. Pusha, appear!

(A thunderclap! From nowhere, PUSHA the assassin appears.)

PUSHAWhat was happened? Where am I? A moment ago, I was sneaking behind enemy lines to slip a blade between the ribs of my royal adversaries, and now I find myself here. (looking around) This place is familiar! Why, I have returned to the house of Parvati, and that ancient gatekeeper is nowhere in sight. With my quick and silent step, I shall creep inside Parvati’s chamber without notice.

SHIVAPusha! I have summoned you! Shiva, your god!

PUSHAGreat Shiva! I did not know you had summoned me. What menial task do you have for me? I will fulfill it in the blink of an eye.

SHIVAThis, Ganesha, is how a servant speaks.

Ganesha 58.

PUSHAI can blow out a candle and be asleep in bed before the wick goes black. I can slide inside a keyhole, or drop an apple from a high treetop and catch it from the ground.

SHIVAFar simpler, Pusha. You are to race my boy.

PUSHAThis clumsy tot? I can out-run his mouth, out-jog his memory and out-jump him to his own conclusions.

SHIVAOnce around the world, I think. That should keep him occupied and give me some peace.

PUSHAOnce around the world it is. Try to keep up, young fellow. Perhaps if your ears catch a tailwind.

SHIVAReady? Off you go!

(PUSHA darts off SL. GANESHA stands motionless.)

SHIVA (CONT’D)What do you wait for, boy? He already has crossed the river, and is beyond the gates of city!

(GANESHA takes a step, and another. He slowly walks behind SHIVA.)

SHIVA (CONT’D)Do you mean to hide? What means this?

(GANESHA has walked once around SHIVA.)

GANESHAI have done it.

SHIVAYou insolent brat! You think you can fool the great Shiva?

Ganesha 59.

GANESHAFather, you created me, and you are my whole world. You are the best and the worst of me, the joy and the anger. A boy’s father is his whole world, and should treat him such. When I circle you, I circle the world.

SHIVAThis is not what I meant.

GANESHAAre you the great Shiva, he who is the whole world?

(PUSHA comes flying in from the other direction, completing his round-the-world journey.)

PUSHAI am here! I would have arrived sooner but they erected a huge Wall across China, and I had no choice to go around. But the elephant boy is here before me without a drop of sweat on his brow? Do not tell me, great Shiva, that he has beaten me in a footrace.

SHIVAHe has not bested you in speed, loyal Pusha, but he has indeed made his way around the world before you.

PUSHACheat! Liar! There is no one, man nor beast, who can beat me in a test of naked speed!

SHIVAHe has walked around me, Pusha, and I am his father, a boy’s whole world. He has given it to him and it rests in him.

PUSHAAh! This is indeed clever. This young man’s mind is quicker than my feet. Hail Shiva! Hail Ganesha!

GANESHAHe has hailed me! That’s kind of him. Does he have a candy for me?

Ganesha 60.

SHIVAYou have shown the sharpness of your mind, but to gain praise from peoples requires far more than a bit of flattery and word play. We shall see you fight.

GANESHAAgainst you, father?

SHIVADefeat me? Have you not learned from your earlier bout what facing your father will do? I don’t much feel like looking for yet another head for you. You will fight another of my servants, the brutish Kusha!

(A thunderclap. KUSHA appears from nowhere, sword drawn.)

KUSHAWhat has happened? What is this strange but familiar place? I was on a battlefield, up to my knees in gore, about to break the enemy lines, and now I find myself here. But where is here? (KUSHA looks about) I recognize this place, the front door of Parvati! And the door is unguarded! This cannot be nothing but a sign from the gods that we were meant to have the bounty from up those stairs.

SHIVAStay away from her!

KUSHAGreat Shiva! I did not know it was you who brought me here.

SHIVANow this is a servant.

KUSHAWho do you want slaughtered, my Lord? What poor soul’s blood is so sullied that you do not wish to dirty you immortal hands with it?

SHIVAI bring you here as teacher, to spar and fight with Ganesha.

Ganesha 61.

PUSHAAll hail Ganesha!

SHIVAKusha, you will engage the boy in combat, teach him how to fight. Do not put your full heft behind your sword.

PUSHAThere is no honor in defeating a boy.

SHIVAYes, so I have been told.

KUSHAFour feet high, if an inch!

SHIVANow show your power, Ganesha. Destroy these men who dare to share a road with your might! Lash them with your trunk and gore them with your tusks! (to Kusha) This should humble the boy down to a nub. He will find power, like a heavy sword, wears down the one who wields it.

(GANESHA opens his arms and walks toward KUSHA, a smile on his face.)

KUSHAKeep your distance, half-man! Have the wisdom not to walk into range.

(GANESHA embraces KUSHA in his arms.)

GANESHAI have struck.

KUSHAHelp! Let me go! The monster has me!

GANESHAI will not let go.

SHIVAStrike him back, Kusha!

(KUSHA struggles to strike GANESHA.)

Ganesha 62.

KUSHAI cannot reach him! He has become one with me!

PUSHAWhat should I do, Kusha?

KUSHAYou strike him! Cut him off me!

PUSHAI cannot! I fear I may wound you as well.

SHIVAA most unorthodox style of combat.

KUSHALet me go!

GANESHAWhen I faced my father and used my blade, everything fell apart. When my father fell to the ground at my mother’s feet, the world was saved. I learned this from him.

PUSHAYou, Shiva, fell at her feet?

SHIVAI taught him that tactic! Very effective!

PUSHAA clever ploy. To surrender.

KUSHAPusha, attack! Use your speed and guile!

PUSHAAttack a god?

KUSHAHelp me, Pusha!

PUSHALet’s see him embrace my dagger!

SHIVADo not hurt him, Pusha! That is my son!

Ganesha 63.

(As PUSHA rushes him, GANESHA snatches him up with the other arm and holds them both tight.)

PUSHAHelp! I am ensnared by the elephant’s love!

KUSHAYou cannot hold us forever.

GANESHAOnly until your swords fall into the dust.

SHIVAHe has won. Let the boy go!

KUSHABut he has us!

PUSHAWe are his prisoner!

SHIVARelease them, Ganesha. The fight is over.

GANESHAI have them, Father. I will hold them.

SHIVAGanesha, I have told you once, and it cost you your head. Obey your father.

KUSHAListen to your Lord Shiva, Ganesha.

PUSHAIf he is the world, obey him.

GANESHAAll is safe. My ears tell me their heartbeats are slowing.

SHIVAYou force my hand, Ganesha. Do as I say.

(SHIVA approaches to pull them free, but GANESHA takes him into his arms as well, and he hugs all three.)

Ganesha 64.

SHIVA (CONT’D)Let me go, boy!

GANESHAWhen you release your weapon, I will release you.

KUSHAWhen you release us, we will pick them up again, one and all.

GANESHAThen I will never release you.

SHIVAI order you to release me!

PUSHAHe embraces Shiva in the same manner he embraces us!

KUSHAThis is power!

SHIVANo! I am the most powerful and the most terrible!

KUSHAI’ve never felt happier. That sword was so heavy.

PUSHAI am in the same predicament as Shiva! Shiva and me, the same!

SHIVADo not address me like this! Let us all go, boy!

GANESHAI still feel anger, father. I must defeat them utterly.

KUSHAThis is the child of Shiva?

PUSHAAll hail!

SHIVANo, no! Parvati is his mother!

Ganesha 65.

KUSHAAnd a goddess his mother!

PUSHAAll hail the new god!

(GANESHA releases them all.)

SHIVAPusha! Kusha! You were two of my most loyal followers, dedicating yourselves to chaos, war and deception. You left amphoras of blood at my shrine! And to see you now, praising another, a mere boy. What has happened to you?

PUSHAWe will always fear you, powerful Shiva!

KUSHABut we love Ganesha!

PUSHAAll hail, Ganesha!

GANESHAHave I not done as you asked, father? Have I passed you tests and completed your tasks? May I have a sweet? (to Kusha and Pusha) Do you gentlemen like sweets?

KUSHAI do!

PUSHAMe too!

SHIVAYou have lost your taste for violence? Then I will send you back to the battlefield where your taste of blood was enough! Be gone from my sight!

(A thunderclap, but KUSHA and PUSHA remain where they are.)

KUSHAHail, Ganesha!

Ganesha 66.

PUSHAHis belly is full with generosity and wisdom. All hail!

SHIVALike Parvati, my powers have failed me! Ganesha, this is your doing! What have you done?

KUSHAHis ears are so large that he will hear every prayer!

(PUSHA and KUSHA bow down to praise Ganesha. There is a woman’s scream from inside the apartment.)

SHIVAWhat is this? Parvati, in danger?

PARVATI(emerging from upstairs)

Help me! An intruder!

SHIVAHere is my chance. She may be a goddess, but she is still a woman who needs saving.

GANESHAWhat troubles you, mother? Who is in the house with you?

PARVATIThere is a rat in my house! A horrible rat!

PUSHAWhat Shiva could not do, a tiny rat has done.

KUSHAWell done, rat!

SHIVAThat Yama is still causing trouble! Bring this rat to me!

(SHIVA holds out his hand. Another thunderclap. And once again, nothing. PARVATI comes to the street.)

SHIVA (CONT’D)Horrors! You have stolen my powers along with my worshippers?

Ganesha 67.

(MORE)

I need no magic to undo your head once more!

PARVATIIt is not the rat, but what he has done. In its insatiable hunger, it has eaten the pages from the Book of the World! All history, gods and man, have been eaten by a rat.

SHIVAI will kill this rat!

PARVATIIt has disappeared behind the walls.

SHIVAI will tear it down to protect you, my wife!

PARVATIHow like the great Shiva! Destroy a house to catch a mouse.

KUSHAGanesha will save us! He will catch it and save the Book!

PUSHAAll hail Ganesha!

SHIVAHa! Do you plan to embrace this rat in your arms, or race it around the world? Let us see what you do when you must bow to a beast.

KUSHASave us, Ganesha!

PARVATIShiva, these warriors are praising our son.

SHIVAYes, they love him because he loves them. It’s complicated.

GANESHACan I have a sweet?

Ganesha 68.

SHIVA (CONT’D)

SHIVAYes, I suppose you may. Do you have a sweet for your son, Parvati?

PARVATII do. Here, my boy, eat this.

SHIVALet the grown-ups think!

(PARVATI produces a sweet and gives it to GANESHA. GANESHA embraces her.)

PARVATIGo ahead, my boy. Nibble at your sweet while your parents combine solve this cosmic dilemma. How to catch a rat?

(GANESHA sits on the ground. He puts the sweet in his hand, holds it out, and quietly hums to himself.)

SHIVAIf I cannot go inside and tear apart the walls, how can you expect to catch this rat?

PARVATIYou are to blame for this somehow.

SHIVAI did no such thing. Yama crept into your house on his own accord.

PARVATIYou turned my sweet Yama into a rat? Then it was your fault!

SHIVAHe had to be punished.

PARVATIAnd what horrible deed did Yama commit?

SHIVAHe spoke nonsense and was insolent to Shiva. He was not nice.

PARVATIPray, what did he say?

Ganesha 69.

SHIVAThe words are not important, but the manner in which they were spoke that sealed his fate.

PARVATIWhat could my lovely Yama have said to make you take a moment from ruling the cosmos to strike his down?

SHIVAHe claimed that I was in love with you.

PARVATI(taken aback)

He said that?

SHIVAYou see? Without the slightest hint of humility or apology.

PARVATIAnd why would he say that?

SHIVAHe mistook my respect I hold for your power as love.

PARVATITruly a mistake.

SHIVAThat’s what I said. And so, rat!

PARVATIFor what does Shiva know of love?

SHIVAWhy would I not know of love?

PARVATIYou love power and destruction.

SHIVAAnd now you bar the door to me. This is not how a wife treats her husband.

PARVATIWhat have you done to prove yourself worthy?

Ganesha 70.

SHIVAI have made Ganesha!

(During the exchange between SHIVA and PARVATI, YAMA the rat has scurried outside of the shop, gnawing on the Book. GANESHA holds out the sweet to YAMA, who crawls into his lap. GANESHA takes the Book away and pets him.)

YAMAA simple sweet never tastes so fine, after eating dry pages.

PARVATIHe has done it. Yama sits in his hand.

SHIVAHa! That is all the tiny beast wanted: something sweet.

PARVATIHe has saved the Book of the World. (examining the Book) Even with holes, there is enough left here to put the world right.

KUSHAAll hail, Ganesha!

PUSHAPraise his wisdom!

GANESHAI have you now, Yama, and I feel sorry for you. You began this life immortal and now your scurry across the floors and alleys, looking for scraps. I can change you back, if you wish.

YAMAYou? The monstrous tusk-child, grant me a wish? Who are you to grant wishes?

SHIVAHis pride has not diminished in accordance with his status.

YAMAI am Yama! All praise Yama! Even as a rat, I am the oldest of all of you.

Ganesha 71.

(MORE)

I was there when the world was born, and I will be there when it dies!

PARVATIHe has seen the birth of everything, but remembers nothing!

YAMAIt is I who grants wishes! Ask a wish of me then, trunk-face! I will grant you a wish!

GANESHAI will travel this world to rewrite the missing spots.

SHIVAOnly a god may write in the book.

KUSHAAll hail Ganesha!

PUSHASo wise and so kind!

PARVATIThis is how gods are treated. But a simple pen and ink will not do, my Ganesha.

(GANESHA breaks off the end of one of his tusks.)

SHIVAWhat have you done, my boy? You have left yourself half unarmed against a dangerous world. Who will fear your tusks now?

GANESHAThe pages were eaten by beast who was once a god, and will be put back together by a god who was once a beast. Off I go!

KUSHAAll hail Ganesha!

PUSHASo wise and so kind!

SHIVAYou will need an animal to ride. I chose an elephant.

Ganesha 72.

YAMA (CONT'D)

(MORE)

And you mother a peacock. Any creature on the planet can be yours, fleet or strong or terrifying.

PARVATIDo not go, my son!

GANESHAA steed to ride? Then I choose Yama.

SHIVAA rat?

PARVATIYou will travel neither far nor quickly. And your feet will drag along the ground as you ride.

YAMATo carry an elephant on my back for the rest of my days? Woe upon woe!

SHIVAMy son has shown me that one can be everywhere without speed, power or pride.

YAMAI have truly found the bottom! I have been mistaken about that before, but this time I must be right.

GANESHAFarewell, my parents. My strong and handsome father, and my beautiful and graceful mother. We have much ground to cover and a world to remake.

PARVATI(embracing Ganesha)

Stay with me, my boy! Forty thousand apologies! I did not mean to reject you. I will be so alone. You are not only my boy, but better than I could make alone!

GANESHAAllow me to leave, and I will love you always.

Ganesha 73.

SHIVA (CONT'D)

PARVATIWe will be forgotten!

GANESHAYou will never disappear for you created me. You are my parents, my mother and father, the sun and the moon. The sun and the moon have always shared the sky. Farewell all! Hip-hip!

(GANESHA mounts YAMA, who grunts and strains to bear his weight.)

GANESHA (CONT’D)Around the world, Yama.

YAMAAt least I know the way.

(YAMA carries GANESHA off.)

KUSHAAll hail Ganesha!

PUSHAGanesha, all hail!

(KUSHA and PUSHA follow them off, praising GANESHA.)

SHIVAOur boy passes into the world. The people love him. Perhaps fear has gone out of fashion, for he leads with love.

PARVATIAs to the matter of love, did you not say you were in love with me?

SHIVAShiva does not know what love is. He does not understand it one bit. It has turned the world upside down.

PARVATILove is not be understand, but felt.

SHIVAYou are a terrible force to behold when you are angry.

Ganesha 74.

PARVATIDid you like lying at my feet?

SHIVAI did.

PARVATIThen you understand love. Now, great Shiva, I am going to take a bath. The dirt from the street has coated my skin and once again needs to be scrubbed away.

SHIVAWith both Yama and Ganesha gone, I will guard your door, mistress.

PARVATILet the door go unguarded.

(PARVATI takes his hand and brings him up the stairs. They close the door behind them.)

YAMA(from offstage)

The bottom! At last!

(BLACKOUT.)

(END OF PLAY.)

Ganesha 75.