Haridas moved to this cottage when his work started fetching good prices. He was utterly charmed by its tiled roof, its spacious, light-filled living room and its unexpected French name. He had not only paid the price that its East Indian owner had asked for without bargaining but had presented him with a painting as well.

The design of the cottage is traditional. There’s a covered veranda in front and one at the back, with a sprawling living room in between. On one side of the living room is the kitchen and a small room where Girji and Marli sleep, and on the other, two rooms—one of which is Haridas’s studio and the other his bedroom, equipped with a mattress on the floor.

Anima follows Marli into the kitchen to ask after Girji. Girji shows her blackened teeth in answer to her how are you. Marli giggles. She has spent ten of her twelve years in Mumbai but it never fails to amuse her that people should ask her mother how she is. How is a mother supposed to be?

Returning to the living room, Anima notices that the wall facing the veranda door is covered with a kalamkari bedspread. Haridas winks in response to her raised eyebrows. ‘My surprise,’ he says, then adds with a smirk, ‘Shekhar’s coming.’

Anima’s expression is neutral. Haridas pretends not to know why Shekhar finds him so unacceptable despite his having moved out of Sharada’s life long before she married him. Haridas has adhered strictly to his principle of never messing with married women. Sleeping with women should be a straightforward matter. When he comes across a woman who is both interesting and unattached, he might say to her over coffee, ‘I’d like to sleep with you. How about it?’ It is entirely possible that the woman has never heard such a direct statement of interest from a man before. This might cause her to feel a little confused, even embarrassed. But she owes him a response. A straight answer to a straight question. If she is attracted by his polished dark skin, his mischievous eyes, his straight gaze, the bhikbalis in his ears and the aura of fame around him and if, as he has rightly gauged, she is far from being a prude, she might say, ‘Why not?’ So the woman of the world and the man of the world get together. When either has had enough of the other, they part as good friends. Later, if the woman marries, her husband too becomes Haridas’s friend.

Sharada had turned out to be different. She had replied, ‘I’d rather just be a friend.’ He hadn’t minded. ‘Being friends is also not a bad idea.’ But then Sharada had fallen in love with him and slept with him out of love, despite knowing that he was not in love with her.

‘I said Shekhar is coming,’

‘I heard you,’ Anima says. ‘Who else?’