Today has been brilliant so far and I’m not going to let anything spoil it for me. Since I have time to myself, I’m going to get a pedicure and maybe even a manicure and a trim—I might even have a facial. A girl needs to look after herself, especially when she gets great feedback for her first article.

Yes sir, I am going to kick-off the celebrations by myself—and who knows? Maybe Sid has a surprise planned for me. He asked me to be ready before he left the house. Maybe he will take me out to dinner and I intend to look good for it.

I puke a couple of times before heading out to the parlour and hope I don’t have any more episodes while I get a pedicure. It’s the second day that I’ve puked now—I better get myself to a doctor soon. I don’t like falling ill, but then I don’t know anyone who does.

I walk towards the gate to catch an autorickshaw and see Mrs Mishra and Neha loading her baby into a car. The car has one of those imported baby car seats that face backwards.

I haven’t met Neha for ages and the last I heard of her was when her mother-in-law—Mrs Mishra—was bitching about her at the jagran. I recall that the baby had been named after Nabokov’s Lolita.

Unbidden an image pops in my head—a naked Neha reading Lolita while eating really salty French fries. I suddenly realize that I really, really want to eat salty French fries.

Neha sees me and waves at me. I wonder if any of the close-at-hand restaurants serve French fries while trying to walk away quickly. I don’t really want to talk to her, small talk isn’t my forte. I manage to evade her with a nod and a wave and catch an autorickshaw to the parlour.

I walk into the parlour to the usual scene—the girls waiting for their clients are sitting on a bench on one side of the room while Mr Singh sits at the reception desk opposite them. Mr Singh’s very hairy hands rest on the table alongside various brands of nail polish, a guest book signed by patrons and pictures of imported nail art.

‘Let your hands look like the stars’ is the promise on the nail art pictures.

I’ve never seen a guest book in a parlour before and this one has comments as well as suggestions scribbled in.

‘Very good waxing’ and ‘Eyebro look butiful’ share the space with ‘Message girl very hard’ and ‘This pen not working proparly’.

I know the proprietors of the parlour are very proud of the guest book as they feel ‘it tells us what client want without hesitation’. Except anyone who knows Minni will really think twice before suggesting anything she might not like.