DAS The truth will never be known, only to God who is merciful.

FLORA Yes. Which God do you mean?

DAS Yours if you wish, by all means.

FLORA Now, Mr Das, there is such a thing as being too polite. Yours was here first.

DAS Oh, but we Hindus can afford to be generous; we have gods to spare, one for every occasion. And Krishna said, ‘Whichever god a man worships, it is I who answers the prayer.’

FLORA I wasn’t sure whether Krishna was a god or a person.

DAS Oh, he was most certainly a god, one of the ten incarnations of Vishnu. He had a great love affair, you see, with a married lady, Radha.

FLORA I think that’s what confused me.

DAS Radha was the most beautiful of the herdswomen. She fell passionately in love with Krishna. She would often escape from her husband to meet him in secret. It is a favourite subject of the old Rajasthani painters.

FLORA Come and sit down, Mr Das.

DAS I will … but I will start on my tree while we wait.

FLORA Put a monkey in it.

DAS Yes. Like Hanuman, he is my favourite in the Ramayana. The monkey god.

FLORA Mr Coomaraswami showed me the temples.

DAS Did you find them interesting?

FLORA I liked some of the sculptures, the way the women are often smiling to themselves. Yes, that was quite revealing, I thought.

DAS About Indian women?

FLORA No, about Indian sculptors. And breasts like melons, and baby-bearing hips. You must think me ill-favoured.

DAS No. My wife was slightly built.

FLORA Oh …

Nazrul enters with the tea-tray.

FLORA Thank you, Nazrul … And two kinds of cake!

Nazrul replies smilingly and leaves.

DAS But your face today … I think your work was troublesome.

FLORA Yes.

DAS Is it the rhyming that is difficult?

FLORA No.

DAS The metre?

FLORA No. The … emotion won’t harmonize. I’m afraid I’m not much good at talking about it.

DAS I’m sorry.

FLORA That’s why I don’t keep nipping round to your side of the easel. If I don’t look there’s nothing to say. I think that that’s better.

DAS Yes. It is better to wait. My painting has no rasa today.

FLORA What is rasa?

DAS Rasa is juice. Its taste. Its essence. A painting must have its rasa … which is not in the painting exactly. Rasa is what you must feel when you see a painting, or hear music; it is the emotion which the artist must arouse in you.

FLORA And poetry? Does a poem have rasa?

DAS Oh yes! Poetry is a sentence whose soul is rasa. That is a famous dictum of Vishvanata, a great teacher of poetry, six hundred years ago.

FLORA Rasa … yes. My poem has no rasa.

DAS Or perhaps it has two rasa which are in conflict.

FLORA Oh …

DAS There are nine rasa, each one a different colour. I should say mood. But each mood has its colour—white for laughter and fun, red for anger, pale yellow for tranquillity …