Rajan shook his head and smiled. ‘I’m never going to hear the end of that, am I?’

‘Not until you remember to notice my haircuts too.’

‘So, er, coming back to the topic,’ said Jai, ‘when do you have to leave, Ma?’

‘Well, they’re working on my travel documents—so as soon as I have the papers. Oh, I’ll miss you so much Jai, but we’ll email each other every day until you visit, okay?’

Jai nodded happily. What he was thinking of was the restaurants that he wanted to visit in London. He had made a list when he was ten from an issue of the BBC Good Food magazine that his mother had brought back after one of her work trips abroad. This list had been stuck into a special scrapbook that Jai kept updating over the years. It was all part of his preparation and research for when he would open his own café one day. ‘Wraps and Rolls’, it would be called. He really wanted to visit Nabeel’s Kitchen in London. The magazine had carried a special feature on ‘hidden gems’—cafés to watch out for—and Nabeel’s Kitchen was in that list. Jai had memorized almost every word the food critic had said about how expertly Nabeel Said added a contemporary twist to traditional dishes. Jai desperately wanted to try her version of haleem rolls. Just thinking about it made him smile.

‘You seem so happy about the news, Jai—just like your father,’ huffed Arathi. ‘The least I had hoped was for someone to be a little sad that I’m going away for two whole months.’

Just then, Toshi entered the room and heard the last snatches of what Arathi had said.

‘Going away for two months? Oh, don’t say that, beta,’ she said to Arathi. ‘Are you leaving Rajan because of that fight over the foolish compliments he was paying to that silly Anjali Arora?’

‘Come and sit down, Ma,’ said Arathi, sighing. ‘It’s got nothing to do with that. It’s this software assignment that I’ve been offered in London.’

‘Arre wah, beta,’ said Toshi. ‘You must go—and don’t worry about a thing—we’re here to hold the fort. I’ll keep an eye for you on my foolish son too.’

Arathi smiled and hugged her mother-in-law.

‘Rajan and I are also planning to bring you and Jai there during his summer holidays, if you like, Ma. They’re putting me up in a serviced apartment, and apparently, it is quite close to your favourite cricket stadium.’

‘Hmm. Waise, I don’t really care about London, but I’ve always wanted to visit Lord’s,’ said Toshi. ‘To see that balcony where Kapil Dev stood, holding the World Cup trophy in 1983.’

‘Gah! That was in the last millennium,’ said Jai.

‘Oh, but it was so special,’ chorused his parents and grandmother.

‘That Voice’

Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Inaya hadn’t stopped talking about Nabeel Said to her grandparents or to Zain and Saba. Of course, she had to ensure that she didn’t inadvertently mention Nabeel Said to her father. She had decided that it wasn’t worth telling him yet—and besides, she might never need to tell him at all, because in all likelihood, she wouldn’t get selected for the league tournaments anyway.