"Dr. Winston Subramaniam" | A Monologue by Ebenezer B. Veerasingam

(The actor enters the stage from the left, humming the tune of Bob Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind", with a walking stick and poor attire with grey hair and hints of a hunchback. Somewhat lost in thoughts and concentrating on the struggling walk across the stage. But on reaching the centre of the stage, he suddenly becomes aware of the audience, stops humming, and slowly turns with an intelligent smile.)

"Me..? Winston Subramaniam.

Hahahaa... ‘Doctor’ Winston Subramaniam.

Brought up at Trinity College; had a fantastic school life there. Then..., you know, I was pruned at Madras. Later, as usual, a PhD from Cambridge. In those days, it was part of our lifestyle; to go to Oxford or Cambridge for doctoral studies. Mmm... That's the summary of my early life and education.

Ahh! And, that beautiful and charming girl that I met in Cambridge, from the Thomas family. Memories of that lady from ‘God’s own country’. Malayali, she was... Cannot ignore that, right? She was a queen! Mmm...

Later, I returned home, I mean, to my homeland, searching for the right place for me. Spent my whole youth yearning for that place.

Things went wrong. I became abnormal... They say. Somebody admitted me to the National Mental Health and Research Centre. Haha... They did so much research on me. Agnosia, Amnesia, Dementia, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease; I fell into all categories. Haha... Poor fellows, they couldn’t figure it out. I spent nearly two decades in that place, being the object, subject, specimen and field of interest for all they did. You know what, they should have started a new department, the “Department of Subramaniamology”. Hahahahahaaa...

(taking time to change emotions and the pace of speech)

When I came out of that place after two decades, the world outside looked so similar to that research centre. I saw people with wires connected to their ears, went talking to their own selves. Those wires were connected to a small mirror-like device on their palms, which looked like a mini television. They kept on touching those device time and again, used to smile at them, show their anger at them, and some of them made faces at them too. I came to know that’s how nowadays people connect with each other. Pheww...! They all looked so busy. Looked like if they did not press those buttons for a few minutes, then the planets would start moving in a different direction. Waa... I could not find any difference between where I lived for the last two decades and the world outside here. There too, in the mental health research centre, if I could adequately remember, people, laugh and talk on their own, smile at their plates, shout at the windows, make faces at the chairs and keep touching things with utmost concentration. No difference at all!

But... The sad part of the story is... Since everyone is busy connecting with someone far away, there is no one to smile at... me! Nobody to listen to me! No one to say even a ‘hi’ to me."

(The actor slowly turns back and returns to his walk across the stage, humming the song's chorus, and the sound gradually fades away.)

First performed by Ebenezer Veerasingam at Christ University, Bangalore, in August 2013