It had been a long and tiring day. Still, he couldn’t sleep. At around two in the morning, Bloody decided there was no point lying around in bed. He switched on the lights, got dressed and walked across to Viya’s block. The party was still on, though everyone looked more subdued than earlier. While the joints had stopped going around, other items were still in circulation: a bottle of ice-cold water, a Mars bar, a bottle of Visine eye drops.

The action, though, lay in the centre of the room, at the very spot, where just a few hours earlier, Bloody had deposited a pair of Weekender shorts. Viya squatted on the floor, lizard in hand, trying to stuff its mouth with chewing tobacco. As soon as he managed to get a small quantity in, he tied its mouth with a piece of string and let it go. Dizzy with baccy juice, the lizard leaped around doing back flips, like a gasping fish left on the beach by a receding wave. Two lizards lay inert on the floor, exhausted, comatose or maybe even dead. Viya turned around and warned his mesmerized audience: ‘Guys, we are running out of lizards.’

Bloody suddenly remembered the two fat ones on his ceiling. ‘Viya, I think there are a couple in my room. I’ll go get them. Can you pass me that little box please?’

‘Oh great,’ said Viya, rising from his haunches and looking for his slippers. ‘Hold on a sec, man. I’ll come with you.’

Rubber Band

This had come up before. On Sunday night I cornered her for the seventy-seventh time. I don’t trust you, I said, I still don’t trust you. Did he kiss you? How far did it go? Why didn’t you push him away right in the beginning?

She cried, she screamed. She said she’d slept with 10,000 men. She said he was a nice man. Then she had one of her seizures. I lay her down on the couch in the lateral position. I wiped her foaming lips a couple of times before lighting up a cigarette.

The first time she had a fit, we were in a seedy hotel room in Paharganj. I was in New Delhi for a job interview.

It had been a mixed day. We started with a beer breakfast at the United Coffee House. We made love in the afternoon, then stepped out for lunch.

She ate her special thali without any joy. But I made you come three times in a row, I protested. Aren’t you happy? No, said Madhu, curling her tongue over her upper lip, you are an unsettling influence on my life.

Back in the hotel room she complained of tiredness. She sat down on the double bed and cleaned her nails with a file. She then lay down on her back and shut her eyes.