To be born again you have to die! What say? This catastrophe is an event by which I will be born again. Oh, there I see you too. Oh ho, you too have survived this fall. May I say, we two are lucky ones? Who are you? Really – you are an actor? I am one too! I am India’s most famous star – Don’t you know me? Haven’t you heard about me and Rekha?
Rekha!! Is that you? What are you doing here? What are you doing sitting on that cloud? Rekha! Come to me whilst I fall with this gentleman-you know-our plane exploded mid air! Just like that POP! I say, come to me Rekha! I thought you were dead! Are you archangel? Rekha! You are so much above now! NO! O Ji, I tell you, we are going down down down! Yes, to be born again. To be born again, you see, you have to die first!
Where are we pal? I say, are we alive? What is this happening to me! O Ji, what is happening to you? Did you say I have a halo on my head now? O Ji, you must be joking, for I see 2 green horns on your head? O Ji, am I the Angel Farishta? What are you? The Shaitan Chamcha? What are we? AngelShaitan FarishtaChamcha? Oh what joy, me say, you go your way and me goes my way? Lets stay together for a while. You agree? Good!
Oh dear, there are the police! They will take you Shaitan. For it is your fate. Till we meet.
No! I tell you this Mahound, that people of this village shall worship only me. Oh, I see it is you Shaitan Chamcha – you are the Mahound? By what befallen luck are you my writer? Will you write for me – the verses which I command thee? Good! Lets begin then. I tell you what to write, and you tell them Mahound to the people. -----. What they not listen to me Mahound? All I ask is 42 times in prayer a day. No they want 5. So it is then. Write it down. What, they don’t want to hold their fingers in upright position while pissing, I command thee that they do. ----- Wherre am I? Was I dreaming? Oh I am the Angel. But where is the Shaitan. Am I dreaming? Help me o friend of mine. No! I am not schizophrenic, No I am the Angel Farishta. I say what happened to my friend Chamcha? What he married? He is living in London like a wasted soul? I grant him thee to recover. I grant him the wish to recover from his demonic state to human.
I did say I want them to pray me! Pray, who are these ladies with you Mahound? They call themselves your wives! What? The village people pray them? Can we make an adjustment? NO! Okay, on one condition, I must be prayed too as with them? And what happened to my verses? Did you say you deleted them? Why oh you Shaitan, you Mahound! Why? Didn’t I tell you to keep them! What? You put your own verses in the holy book? I condemn those verses – they are the satanic verses. Go Mahound, get lost! I have no use for you now.----- Oh! was it a dream again?! I see now clearly. Is it me? I am Angel? I killed. I killed. I plan. I am bad. I am Angel Farishta when the Shaitan Chamcha lives his life like without being one? Has he accepted fate? Shaitan accepted faith? Am I the Angel? Is he the devil?
I see her praying. Oh my dear lady! You need to come to me. Take that voyage beyond the seas. Take all your village folk and come to me. Come to me at the sea of Arabia, and once in my embrace, will the sea split open towards me. O Come to me my darling! Oh the sea didn’t part! Oh you pour soul, you all died! Oh, all of you died! Oh I am the Farishta. Oh!----- No!! I am not dreaming this time! I need to go back. I need to be back amongst the people I know. I live in a foreign country. How am I an Angel in this land which does not believe me? How am I a Farishta in the land which doesn’t own me? I need to go back. What, is Chamcha too back? He believed he could change fate? I must punish him. For he ruined my book – for he thinks I am the Satan! He preached wrong! No! I am not crazy! What? No its not my dreams. It is reality. I need to kill him!
There you are Chamcha! Today we decide! I the Angel, you the Shaitan? You need one more chance in life Shaitan? What for? Are you the Angel who seeks solace in this world, or is I the devil who seeks revenge? By killing you, I will be the Farishta! Get ready to die again Chamcha!! I the Angel, you the devil, you the Angel, I the devil?! To be born again, you have to die.
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No! Why are they doing this to me! No! Did I hear it right? They are protesting against my story? What did I do so wrong? Is my book that derogatory to my own religion? No right! I heard in Hyderabad they had the first demonstration. Oh, the country which born me is banning me? What shame!
Why? No. Its not about my religion. Its not about your religion! Why are you bent upon killing me! Oh please don’t burn me on streets! Oh please king, do not tell me that I need to die! Oh please O king, do not send people to kill me? What did I do wrong? I tell about me and my childhood, I tell about me and my dreams, I tell about how it feels being alone in a land where you are not one amongst them – is that a sin? I tell about my stories, I tell about stories rich in humor and rich in style – is that a sin? To tell my stories rich in language, rich in words, is this is a sin?
You say your anger is justified? You say your irritation is justified? For what? I cannot believe that my creative freedom ends at my religion! It does? No it doesn’t! Why does it bother so many people? I didn’t tell them! Hear me first to accuse me? I am not the Angel, I am not the devil!
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Rare are such stories told. Rare are such words written. Rare are stories told in magical reality. Rare are dreams told in real world. Rare are real stories told in dreams. Rare do such stories enthuse such fury. Rare do such stories get such anger. Rare do such stories get such honor. Rare are such stories read. Rare are such stories understood in right perspective. Rare is it that people look beyond the known and explore the deepness of though. Rare is that a combination of history, immigrant, loyalty, Angel, demon, mythology, religion, faith blended together with such allegory.
Rare is it that I have read such a book.