Howzat?

Despite Inaya’s lukewarm reception to his idea, Jai desperately wanted to start this online movement. The only problem was that he hadn’t been able to figure out how to kick-start it. He sat staring at the computer with absolutely no clue where to begin. For want of something better to do, Jai started browsing through the photographs he had taken with the Nikon camera that Rustom had given him. Most were of food, predictably. But there were a few photographs of people, if they happened to be around the food.

He came across one of Badi Ma and her brother at the gelato café. They looked so happy. He had rarely seen his grandmother look this happy in all her life. He copied it on to a poster format and printed it out. He looked at it, wondering what to write. He wrote a few words, struck them out and wrote a few more, only to strike them out as well. Finally, he just gave up and went to bed.

A little later, Toshi came into the kitchen to ensure that she had turned off the gas. It was something she did every night before going to bed. Then, invariably, she’d wake up with a start in the middle of the night and check again, just in case. Having reassured herself that all was well, Toshi was on her way back to bed when she found the half-made poster lying on the kitchen table. She looked at the many words that Jai had scratched out. She picked up the pen and wrote: ‘I am an Indian. And my sibling is Pakistani. Can you tell who is from which country?’

She stood up, checked the gas once more and switched off the lights in the kitchen.

In his room, Jai was tossing and turning in bed. He squinted in the dark to look at the time. It was 3 a.m. Jai sat up. His throat felt parched—he headed to the kitchen and got himself a glass of water. He was drinking it when he spotted Badi Ma’s handwritten words on the poster. He read it to himself and then out loud. This was perfect. This was exactly the sort of thing he needed to take his plan forward.

Just then, his laptop pinged. It was a message from Rustom.

‘Hey Jai. Why aren’t you ever online? And when are you coming back? It’s super dull here.’

Jai’s eyes lit up. If there was one person who could help him with this, it was Rustom. He had won competitions for catchy captions, after all. Never mind whether they were his own or not. He sat down at his computer and messaged Rustom.

‘Hey Rusty. What’s up?’

‘Wow. That was quick! You’ve never ever responded to any message that fast. And why are you even awake at this hour?’

‘I need your help, Rusty. You’re good with captions, right? You won that contest and stuff. I urgently need captions for some photographs.’