‘Leena,’ the caller said in a whisper. ‘Lonely, soft-hearted Leena, the eternal sufferer. Tell her it’s Trishala on the phone. Also tell her that you need to take this call in private,’ the woman said.

I noticed she didn’t request but demanded; her presumption that I would obey irritated me.

‘Pardon me?’ I said and hoped my voice conveyed my irritation.

‘Tell her it’s Trishala on the phone. Also tell her that you need to take this call in private. Please …’ the woman said again.

‘I’m not telling her anything. I don’t know who you are or why you’re presuming that—’

‘Polly Sharma, I could change your life. Please just tell your boss as I said and watch her reaction. If she does not get excited, I will hang up,’ the woman said impatiently.

I quickly looked towards Comma, she was eyeing me with a mildly curious expression. She’d obviously been listening in.

‘It’s some woman—she says her name is Trishala,’ I told Comma, the phone mouth-piece covered with my hand.

‘Who Tri—,’ Comma started to say and then her eyes went all round.

‘Oh,’ Comma said, her mouth remained open in an ‘O’.

It was as if Comma suddenly developed ants in her pants. She stood up, she sat down, she ran her hands through her hair while her eyes darted across my table looking for something … Comma lunged for my notepad, pulled out a pencil and set both down before me. She breathed in deeply, sat down and gesticulated for me to carry on talking.

Comma was excited, just as the woman predicted. It gave me a bad feeling.

‘Hi,’ I said not knowing what else to say.

‘Are Leena’s panties in a knot yet? I bet she’s already wet them and is asking you to keep talking,’ the woman—Trishala—said and seemed to expect a response.

I had no idea what to answer, so I stuck with the truth.

‘I don’t know about the former, yes to the latter, er … the bit about keep talking,’ I said, very uncomfortable with the situation because Comma was gesturing for me to take notes!

Trishala burst out laughing.

‘Dear sweet god! I’d made a shot in the dark that you might be naïve after that article of yours but now I know for sure. ‘Former-latter’ is so convent school. However did you end up making friends with Ms Ragini Malik?’ Trishala asked.

And suddenly I knew who she was. I couldn’t believe it!

‘Anyway, how would you like to do an exclusive interview about the whole thing? What really happened, why it happened, why I was quiet for so long, why the blog—all the inane questions that everyone wants answered? Interested?’ Trishala asked me.