‘Are you saying Sid has stopped eating cakes?’ Dragon asks, shocked. ‘He used to love cakes—he and Lalita were always going off to that other bakery—’

‘Oh, I am sorry I forgot to tell you,’ I quickly interject, ‘Sid sent a message earlier in the day. He is delayed and is not coming back tonight. He said he’ll be back Sunday night.’

Dragon looks crestfallen.

‘I’ve hardly seen my son in the four days I’ve been here. Poor boy has no time for his mother—but then again, he does work so hard. Four days—time goes by very quickly, don’t you think?’ Dragon asks.

I really want to tell Dragon that the last four days have been the most agonizingly tortuous days of my life, particularly last night when she sat in my bedroom till 2 a.m., watching some crappy serial. She is the reason I want to shift the TV to the drawing room but Sid won’t hear of it.

Dragon bites into her cake appreciatively. Time’s not going fast enough for me. I feel its slowness again with ma-in-law prattling away without any encouragement from me. There’s no point trying to have a conversation with her anyway—it’s led to an argument each time I’ve tried.

‘I hope you don’t demand too much of Sid’s time, poor boy needs to work,’ she says. By then, I’ve completely lost track of the conversation thread.

‘I don’t, Momji. I know he’s busy and it cannot be helped—’

‘You shouldn’t complain either—at least your work keeps you occupied and that’s because he allowed it. In my time, most wives sat at home and did embroidery,’ Dragon says.

‘I am not complaining, Momji,’ I say.

‘But you want to, I can see it—you shouldn’t though. In our time we didn’t have the luxury of wasting hard-earned money on store-bought cakes and these—,’ she points at my new curtains, ‘branded curtains—Fab-India-shab-India—Sid’s money wasted.’

‘I bought them with my money, Momji,’ I respond.

‘Arre, your money is his money. He’s your husband after all. There’s no distinction in a good marriage. All you can think of is your money, that’s why you modern women have so many divorces,’ she adds disdainfully.

‘We’re not getting a divorce Momji—’

‘Humph! In our time we didn’t even think of it as “our” money—’

‘But you just told me that in your time you sat at home and embroidered, Momji—you didn’t have any money of your own, remember?’

Dragon glares at me as if I’ve said the worst thing possible—I really don’t care how much it upsets her.