Many years later he will make love to a German girl who will be astonished at his ability to climax in pin-drop silence. If you are one of those who have learnt to make love in hostel rooms where girls are forbidden, in flats crammed with the extended Indian family, if you have learnt to make love in places where you are not supposed to be in the first place, chances are you will be master of the soundless fuck.

He is always careful to leave early in the morning, just before the family—father, mother, sister—wakes up. He comes to this park, reads a book, observes the joggers and laughter club regulars. At around nine he returns to the apartment in a clean T-shirt. He joins the Senguptas for breakfast. After breakfast, the parents usually leave. Sunday is the day they keep aside for shopping and social visits. The sister returns to her den plastered with Marty McFly posters and gets on the phone with a boyfriend in Bombay. Anmol and Roshni take the master bedroom.

Sometimes, in the afternoons, they take an auto rickshaw into town. Once they go to a book fair at Pragati Maidan. Being penniless, they decide to steal books. Anmol gets caught red-handed trying to filch a copy of Émile Durkheim’s The Division of Labour in Society. He bribes the shop attendant.

Roshni likes watching horror films, sci-fi sagas, fantasy stuff. They watch the Star Wars trilogy at Satyam Cineplex. Anmol is bored out of his skull. Every Sunday, no matter where they are, they have to be back in time for Xena: Warrior Princess and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Making out is a problem. She lives with her parents. His hostel does not allow girls. The art school she attends is walking distance from Mandi House. The art galleries around Mandi House are mostly empty in the afternoons. They spend many hours there, kissing, groping, walking hand in hand.