“Purnima, don’t pay attention to my brother, bhai, and don’t worry about Mohini. We were able to find a match for Nimita and this will be as easy as making a monkey dance,” Foi said.

“Isn’t it terrible that we waited for the groom from America and let so many others go? In the end we have nothing. And your bhai takes all this as light as water. “

“Aaa su bole che? What are you saying? Before this, we had no other chaps except the nephew of some Chaganlal Maganlal,” Pappa said.

“Maganlal Chaganlal. Maganlal is a son of Chaganlal.”

“Who cares if it’s Maganlal Chaganlal or Chaganlal Maganlal? To me it makes no difference. And that fell from the sky because your cousin Kirti went and got her girl married. And good thing, too, for I wouldn’t have approved of him in the first place.”

“Why not?”

“Because he has no education.”

“He is to inherit his uncle’s business. What more do you need?”

“I don’t need a boy. I need a man who can stand on his own two feet.”

“Remember, people can snatch out of your hand, but never out of your kismet. I say Mohini will find whoever is her kismet,” Foi said, getting up. She wouldn’t tolerate any more arguments about the subject.

Discussions like this made me angry. Why couldn’t Pappa and Mummy ever agree? I wondered. Mummy thought and lived the way her grandmother thought and lived, and Pappa—well, Pappa definitely thought differently from Mummy.

eight

THE DAY I met Mr. Judge, Sarina’s pappa, will forever stay in my memory as the most bumbling-fumbling day of my life. It was Sarina’s birthday, and she’d asked me to come for dinner. Her uncle and his family were also invited.

“But I’ve never even met your pappa, and now you want me to meet him and some other people,” I protested.

“These are not just other people. They’re my family. And didn’t I come and meet six Parekhs and two Mehtas at one time? I don’t remember protesting that there were too many.”

I had no choice, and deep down I wanted to go even though I was shaky about how to greet them, what to talk about, how to eat, and when to smile. I fretted as if I’d never done those things in my life before.

Sarina’s dinner was on a Saturday in December. After attending school from eight to eleven-thirty, I came home, ate lunch, and finished my homework. It was a beautiful afternoon. The early-morning chill had been driven away by sunshine, and the blue sky was dotted with kites.