SCENE (14) – ROYAL FAMILY FINDS A WAY OUT – JADU CONVERTS TO MUSLIM
Setting:
- Ganesh’s private chamber. Night.
- (PHULJANI is waiting at the door. Anxious.)
(GANESH and TRIPURA enter the chamber.)
PHULJANI
Did the meeting reach a solution?
TRIPURA
Alam demanded King’s faith.
PHULJANI
Um! Then the war is real.
TRIPURA
Then we fight.
GANESH
And we lose.
TRIPURA
Better loss than erasure.
PHULJANI
You speak as one who will still have a place.
You will be thrown into the harem first, only if you are spared.
TRIPURA
If Ganesh converts, I lose mine.
GANESH
That is not—
TRIPURA
It is exactly that.
PHULJANI
I have crossed faith twice.
Once to survive.
Once to rule.
TRIPURA
And you survived.
PHULJANI
No. I endured.
GANESH
Enough.
If I convert, I lose the Hindus.
If I refuse, I lose the Muslims.
If I fight, I lose the kingdom.
TRIPURA
So we all lose.
PHULJANI
And if you convert, you lose yourself.
I will not ask you to disappear.
No matter what the kingdom demands.
GANESH
Is this in my fate ultimately?
PHULJANI
Fate has already cheated me.
Unless we cheat it back.
I gave sons to this land.
One died for faith.
One vanished into silence.
I will not give you as well.
GANESH
How?
PHULJANI
There is one path still open.
TRIPURA
I will not like it.
PHULJANI
Neither will history.
GANESH
Say it.
PHULJANI
Let the throne change faith—not the king.
TRIPURA
Explain.
PHULJANI
Jadu.
GANESH
My son.
PHULJANI
He converts.
Jadu becomes Sultan.
GANESH
He is twelve.
PHULJANI
Young enough to be shaped—old enough to be sacrificed.
TRIPURA
You would offer a child?
PHULJANI
The kingdom already eats children. This one at least will be crowned.
GANESH
And me?
PHULJANI
You rule as regent.
TRIPURA
And I?
PHULJANI
Queen remains queen.
Even if love sits closer to the king.
PHULJANI
The Hindus see their king unchanged.
The Muslims see a Muslim Sultan.
GANESH
And Jaunpur retreats.
GANESH
Jadu will never forgive us.
PHULJANI
He will survive us.
TRIPURA
(slow, precise)
If this fails—
history will blame us.
If it succeeds—
history will forget us.
PHULJANI
Then nothing else would have worked.
GANESH
(long silence)
Prepare him.
GANESH (quietly, to PHULJANI)
I will remember who chose me—
when power did not.
(TRIPURA watches.
She understands this is not strategy.
She does not interrupt.)
TRIPURA
I will not bless this.
But I will permit it.
GANESH
I ask you to endure it.
PHULJANI
That is all power ever asks.
(They stand apart—three victors, one victim.)
GANESH
(to himself)
The crown stays.
At a terrible price.
(PHULJANI reaches for Ganesh’s hand.
He lets her.)
(Lights fade.)
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