Eventually, one afternoon, I confronted her. She was sitting alone under a red maple tree.

When I greeted her, she looked as though she had woken up from a deep slumber. For a moment she appeared calm, but soon enough her eyes once again sparked with hate.

‘I want to talk to you, Lailin,’ I said.

‘What do you want to talk about?’ she retorted.

‘Have we ever met before?’

‘What are you trying to say?’

‘I just wanted to know if I have ever hurt you unwittingly. If not, I can’t see why you wouldn’t want to talk to me.’

Lailin picked up her bag and got ready to leave. Then she said, ‘I don’t want to talk to you and I am not obliged to give you my reasons.’

‘Please don’t leave,’ I said. ‘I don’t quite understand what has happened. At least tell me what I have done to you. Since we belong to the same fraternity, I presume there exists some geniality and friendship between us.’

She smiled at me with disdain. ‘Do you understand what friendship means? Do you even know what it means to be genial? You! An Indian!’

So nationality was somehow related to her hatred towards me!

‘What do you mean by that?’ I asked, completely at a loss now. Lailin left without responding. I grew even more determined to find out.

Two days after that, on the second floor of the Rogers Communication Centre, I met Lailin again. To my surprise, she spoke to me on her own. ‘Do you want to know why I dislike you? It is because you are an Indian. I hate all Indians. Don’t try to talk to me again. You will get nothing from me but insults.’

I was stupefied. Before I could respond, she turned away from me and walked off, leaving little scope for me to reach out to her ever again.

The matter should have ended there, but it didn’t. Lailin’s words, harsh as they were, made me even more curious. She did not hate me alone, but all Indians. How could I, an Indian, leave it at that? Determined to know the reason, I chose to confront Lailin again.

It was the final night of the conference. After the valedictory session, everyone left for their respective destinations. Adequately prepared for humiliation, I went over to Pitman Hall and knocked on Lailin’s door. She was surprised to see me. And there it was again, that sudden flare of anger. But the next moment she composed herself and looked at me for a while before sighing deeply. ‘Come in,’ she said. ‘How long will I fight with you?’

Her resistance seemed to be slowly giving way. After a long silence, she began to talk.

‘I stayed away from you. That was the best thing to do. I have told you that I dislike all of you. I don’t want to talk to you. And yet you are so persistent. Don’t you see how I’m suffering?’