City of Joy Page #6

Joan Di!

Joan Di, please stop!

Joan Di!

Ashoka!

Ashoka!

We'll P33'!

All right?

We'll P33'!

So by all means protect us.

Rickshaw wallah!

Tomorrow.

Come and see me.

Will she

will her face be all right?

She is going to be absolutely beautiful.

And if you do exactly what I say

and don't open it up again you're not

even going to see a scar, sweetheart.

But you're going to have to stay here, do

you understand?

Huh?

Joan, you're gonna have

to make her stay here.

I'll try.

You don't goddam try, you do it!

God I hate this place.

I hate this place. I hate this place.

Almost done, sweetheart.

Almost done.

What have you got to say?

I told them your father provides us

with a great deal and

and I, I had promised

him that I will remain loyal.

You're off the list.

Leave your rickshaw here.

Babu

please.

Your rickshaw will be reserved for

people who deserve our trust.

Go.

Babu, I, I, I'll be ruined.

This is as if the ground has opened

I have to speak to Mr Ghatak.

Mr Ghatak!

Mr Ghatak!

Please let me talk to baba, babu.

My father is ill.

I'm making the decisions.

My decision is final.

Now go.

Or do you want him to break your fingers?

Please listen

please let me

please let me talk to

babu

Please let me explain

I quit, I should have stayed quit.

I became a doctor because my

goddam father was a doctor.

I played football because he

played football.

I ran for class president because my

daddy was class president.

And I'm done with it.

Listen to me, Max.

If you want to leave, tell us to go and

stuff ourselves

but don't try and blame

anybody except yourself.

All right then, I quit.

I have given you light years

more than I planned.

I am not magic Max

and I will not be invested in these

people, with their needs

and their clinging and their desperation.

It's just too goddam painfull!

That's what it is working

with people, painful.

And it's a struggle not to lose

compassion or humanity

but it's a struggle we can't afford to lose.

Oh, bullshit.

Ghatak is right.

People are just out for themselves and

everything else is a fraud.

O:

What are you, saint Joan?

Are you a fool or a fraud?

Both.

Both of those.

But I'm here because I want to be here.

Max, maybe the world was meant

to break your heart.

From the moment we're born, we're shipwrecked

struggling between hope and despair.

Oh God

All of us.

God junior.

Not everyone's out out for this, you know.

You did the very best you could.

No, no

Better than most.

No I did not, lady.

I messed up real bad.

You're only human, Max.

Yeah, I khow. Let us, let us not ever forget

what is it, er, run, spectate, commit.

Running, spectator.

Whatever they are.

The more you run the harder they'll chase you.

Oh goddam.

They took away my rickshaw.

So what do you want me to do about it,

get it back for you?

But we trusted you.

I guess that was your mistake, huh?

They took away my rickshaw.

You will have nothing to do with these people

Or that clinic any more.

Hasari, please, what I will earn

will be for you and me.

Sshhh, lie down quickly, lie down.

Go to sleep come on, lie down.

How will I get a job now?

Sshhh, go to sleep, close your eyes.

How will I put food in your mouths?

We have what you saved for my dowry.

Take some more.

Take this one.

This one too.

Hasari?

Hello, Hasari.

You didn't go to work today?

It was a morrning shift, baba.

I bought some food.

Hasari, look

I know you feel

I let you down but don't punish Kamla.

What happened is between you and me.

And we need her at the clinic.

Oh Hasari, please!

The clinic is for everyone.

And I think they'll pay me.

No more clinic!

I'm your husband

and you will do what I will say.

Stay away from him.

He is not one of us.

This is not his home.

He's a he's tree with on roots.

NO, but he is

He will only be good to

you as long as you please him.

That is just not true Hasari.

Please, don't teach me what is true.

Just leave us alone.

I've lost my rickshaw.

I've lost my livelihood.

I don't know what is going to happen to us.

Max.

I have something confidential to ask you.

This disease of ours it is not a visitation

for our past sins

but an illness, yes?

Right.

I want to start a workshop.

We have weavers and carpenters.

We could weave cloth instead of begging.

Anouar, it's a good idea but I

Listen Max I know about this godfather,

he's a clever man.

He has got everyone

to turn their backs on you.

But I can show you how to get your way

back into their hearts.

That is why I want you to follow me.

Please, I show you something.

What is it?

You will see it come on.

You devil!

You stole it?

No, sahib.

Where'd you get it?

The police, sahib.

And, er

we have borrowed it from the police.

Ta-da.

It's great. I konw it's a little

ratty but

I'm good with my hands,

you're good with your so,

we can make it good as new.

What do you think.

Well?

If I go out on the streets

with this machine

I'll die in the gutter with my throat cut.

No you won't .

Because the license the cops.

That can all be fixed

with bribes or something.

And as far as the godfather's concerned,

we just don't work in his area.

And we have nothing to do with

the sucker, here.

So please take it.

Please.

Oh goddam, Hasari!

Doctor Max, you you don't understand.

Tell me.

You are a gora a white man.

You're you're different.

You you think you can buy people's

hearts by giving them things.

Building clinics being a big man.

For me trust is in the heart.

And that is something

which cannot be purchased.

Purchased is that what you think?

Is that what you really feel?

All right.

All right.

Look, I'm a small man.

No, sh*t!

Born small and that's my fate.

And I will not allow you again

to tempt me with big thoughts.

Oh no no, sir.

Uh-uh.

Small ain't the word for you, pal

You are a little brown

illiterate gutless victim.

And you should take all this crap from

the cops and the gangsters.

And you should keep on locking up your wife

being suspicious

being jealous for no goddam reason.

You have no right to say such things to me.

Well then go ahead, stop me.

Come on goddam it!

DO it!

Hasari I did not do this all on my own

You participated too.

And did I take your goddam rickshaw

did I make you live in this sh*t hole'?

No!

So if you want to be pissed at me

go ahead, that's fine.

But you should get pissed at the people who

are really using you.

Do you know what I think?

I think you should bow down so low

that you don't have to get up.

Sweet little sixteen.

Whoa Max. you are good!

Now you look beau Ah, I'll kill you!

You look beautiful

but still no running, jumping,

picking up anything heavy.

All right?

And you're going to stay here

and stay away from you know who.

And she's going to school.

You heard the lady, and she's going to school

Shake the head yes.

Good, you understand?

Say yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Be careful.

Goodbye.

Thank you.

I'm serious.

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