Swimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai Read Free Book Online Page B

finally convinced that his wife had betrayed him.
    Thus began the final scene in
Othello
, the one that Amrith’s school was doing. It took place in Desdemona’s bedroom. In the middle of the night, Othello, mad with jealousy, entered and woke his wife. He accused a bewildered Desdemona of infidelity with Cassio. She vehemently denied it and tried to reason with him. Yet, her husband was blind to all reasoning and he told her to say her prayers before he killed her. She begged for her life, but Othello would grant her no mercy. He smothered her to death with a pillow.
    A large part of the scene was taken up with their exchange. The only other role of any great weight was that of Emilia, who, on hearing noises from her mistress’ room, came in to investigate. When she saw Desdemona killed, she screamed for help. Lodovico, a Venetian nobleman, along with his attendants and other courtiers, came to her assistance. Iago was with them. When Othello told them his reasons for killing Desdemona, mentioning thehandkerchief, Emilia saw what her husband had done. She told Othello the truth. Iago, in order to silence his wife, stabbed her in the side, killing her. He fled the room, but was brought back by guards. Cassio now entered and Othello understood the terrible mistake he had made. Out of remorse, but also to preserve his dignity as a great warrior, he took his life as the play ended.
    Once Amrith had finished reading the story of Othello, he carefully went through the last scene of the play, using a dictionary to help with the difficult Elizabethan English. He was delighted by Desdemona’s role. There was lots of room for great acting in this part. He decided that, since the role of Desdemona was already his, he would memorize it, thus getting an early start on his chance of winning the cup. When he felt he had mastered his lines, he went looking for Mala to run through them with her.
    She was in her favorite reading spot, on the caned divan in the living room, her legs drawn up to her chest, the book propped on her knees. There was a bowl of nellis by her and, not taking her eye off the page, she was dipping each fruit in a mixture of salt and chili powder before popping it in her mouth, her lips puckering at its tartness. She was deeply absorbed in George Elliot’s
Mill on the Floss
, but she put it away, flushing with pleasure and importance as Amrith held out his copy of
Othello
to her. While she was better at reading the other parts than Selvi, the real reason Amrith asked her was that he enjoyed the admiring way shelooked at him as he declaimed his lines, the note of worship in her eyes.
    That evening, the drama teacher called to remind Amrith that there were to be auditions and a preliminary rehearsal the following day. After Amrith put down the telephone, he was lost in thought.
    It was a custom in his school to address every female teacher as Madam, and yet when boys, particularly former students, spoke of Madam, they only meant one teacher — Mrs. Algama, who taught English Literature and Greek and Roman Civilization at the A level and who also ran the Drama Society, or Dramsoc as it was commonly known. Mrs. Algama, or Madam, was a plump, short woman with a brisk manner who wore a Kandyan sari, the palu wrapped around her waist in a no-nonsense style. She was adored by her students and held in higher regard than any other teacher in their school. This was because, in a curious way, she was one of the boys. She would joke with them and sometimes tease a boy in a good-natured manner, particularly someone who had given himself airs and graces, for which she had no patience. She was the only teacher the boys dared tell suggestive jokes to and while she pretended to be shocked — waving her handkerchief at them in horror, pressing the edge of her palu to her mouth — they were not fooled. Her husband was a well-known Sinhalese stage actor. They moved in the artistic, bohemian circles of Colombo. There was very little