The Adventure of Alva and Jagan Jugg

It was the festival time. To contribute to the charm of the festive spirit, she decided to do something creative, and what looked the most appealing to her was the idea of staging a play. Next day, I found her with full enthusiasm saying me, “brother, so this is the matter. Last night I got the theme of a drama. If we stage it, people would definitely receive us with full applauds.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“This is the story of two friends. One is called Alva and the other one is his close mate Jagan Jugg. The story deals with some adventures that the twosome had involved,” she explained.

“Ok, liked the theme, but tell me this, who is Alva and who dons Jagan Jugg?” I inquired.

“Oh…what is in it...It is as simple as that. I will do the role of Alva and you will be Jagan Jugg,” she didn’t give me her face while allotting the roles.

I felt what she offered me was the smallest pie. So I said an excuse, “What people will think? You are a girl, and how can you do the role of a male character and that of Alva?”

“Just think this; people know that we are kids, so there is nothing if I do the role of a male character. No one is even going to identify the fact that I am a girl,” she was very practical.

I had no answer and she added, “but we have to start the rehearsal now itself;  the most important thing is that both the characters of Alva and Jagan Jugg are very much complicated and complex in nature. So to stage the characters, both of us have to involve fully in the rehearsal. In my opinion, from now onwards, both of us have to act, behave and speak to everyone as if we are in reality the respective characters of our play until we stage it in the next week.”

Now I had no option, and it was done. I called her Alva and she called me Jagan Jugg and we wore only the attires of the characters. In those costumes and specifically designed behavioral patterns, even ourselves could not have identified each other. It was a total transformation.

With full liveliness and zeal, Alva went on with the other matters required for the staging of the play like costumes, other artistes, time schedule, properties and PRO works. Being a person, who was worried with a good quantity of stage fright, Jagan Jugg was becoming more and more nervous as the days passed and the staging day getting closer. To escape from such a mentally disturbing situation, Jagan Jugg decided to run away from the location and to come back only after the scheduled date.

Though at first he didn’t notice the absence of Jagan Jugg, Alva soon identified that his close mate was missing. Holding all the preparations, Alva started an operation to trap his friend who went missing.

Alva went to so many places like, beaches, religious places, streets, parks, hotels, and any other spots where, Jagan Jugg could have hidden himself. At last, Alva reached a Gamblers’ Den where a group of people were smoking and playing cards. Standing at the doorstep, Alva loudly asked,

“Is there anyone called Jagan Jugg among you people?”

No one replied.

Alva put one more step ahead to found him inside the den. He again called out the same question,

“Is there anyone named Jagan Jugg in your group?”

This time, Alva noticed a stir in the gang. Somebody said loudly,

“Escape Jagan Jugg… run!”

A person from the group suddenly stood up and hurried towards the door in an attempt to escape. Alva thought once, ‘if some one responds to the name ‘Jagan Jugg’, he could only be the owner of the name’. Alva didn’t make any delay to catch the running man with both his hands. This time, Alva was sure about the capture of Jagan Jugg. Meanwhile, the trapped Jagan Jugg was thinking about the incredible incognitos that both of them had been practicing.

The whole incident was my sister’s dream. When I saw her in one of the fine mornings of our childhood days, she was struggling with her memory to recollect the names of each characters of her dream. Though she found the names successfully, she had failed to see whether they had staged the drama during that weekend to enrich the festival season.