‘Rama is old. Probably just a few years younger than him. He would have been eighty this year.’

‘Will still be.’

‘You call yourself a rationalist . . .’

‘I believe what I see. I will say Shankar is gone when I see his body. Till then he is somewhere. So Dr Bhaskar didn’t find Rama a nuisance? Rama's devotion to Shankar wasn’t becoming bothersome? He didn’t abuse him in order to provoke him to leave?’

‘How would this nothing creature, this misnamed Rama, come in the way of Dr Bhaskar's work? He went because he's old.’

‘Did he tell you that?’

‘Why should I bother to even ask him? If a Warli doesn’t want to talk he doesn’t. The day after he left, Dr Bhaskar brought two Warlis in his place.’

‘Then why does the Gandhi mandir look like this?’

Sindhutai clamps her lips tight.

‘Never mind. May I take these books?’

‘No need. Nima will take them. I don’t have the strength now to look after this sprawl.’

Sindhutai looks defiantly at Bachchu Kaka. Bachchu Kaka shows no reaction. ‘Please give a thought to just one thing, Sindhutai,’ he says as he gets up wearily. ‘Consider it my request. Just remember all those families who rejected your marriage proposal because you were born under Mars. It's not a harmless belief system.’

Sindhutai's face is aflame. ‘Sure, sure. Your friend did me a big favour by marrying me despite Mars. But he abandoned me too. His belief system wasn’t harmless either. Whatever you may say, today I have a life because of Dr Bhaskar.’

Bachchu Kaka shakes his head. ‘I’ve done my duty by warning you. It's up to you to think about it.’

Bachchu Kaka leaves on tired legs.

16

Feroze has sent his car for Anima. ‘Why send it all the way? I’ll hop into the local train and zip down there in no time,’ she had protested. He said, ‘You’re coming for my work. I will send you the car.’ That was it.

Sanjay calls to say the car's there. She is wearing a white and green Pochampalli that Siddharth had given her years ago. She picks up her handbag, slips her feet into her chappals and is about to leave when she suddenly thinks how hot it is. May heat. The sky broods sullenly over the city, hinting at rain which is still a month away. Anima runs into her room and tears the Pochampalli off. Leaving the sari in a heap on the bed, she gets into a light handloom salwar kameez. ‘Phew! That's better.’ Long live the salwar kameez. Siddharth has not seen her in these togs. When he was alive she wore saris to look beautiful and trousers for convenience. He used to call the salwar kameez a ‘messy muddle’.