“From the first time you talked about him I had this strange feeling, and then—”

“And then what?” Neel said, coming in. Sarina and I were sitting on her bed. Neel brought a wicker chair padded with a navy blue cushion close to us and plopped down.

I don’t know what Sarina said. All I could think was Neel, Neel, and Neel. He was two feet away from me.

“You missed the last day of swimming. What happened?” Neel asked me.

“You remember that?”

“Yes. I was waiting for you and your smile; instead, there was your sister, who ignored me completely. I wanted to ask her about you, but I didn’t have the courage.”

“What? I never thought you were scared to talk to a girl,” Sarina said.

“You would be, if you knew this one.”

“Mohini is sweet. You could’ve talked to her,” I said.

“Well, after she turned her face away how could I? What could I say?”

“At least you talked to Jeeta,” Sarina said.

“You call that talking? I asked her maybe ten questions.”

I looked straight into his eyes and said, “You could’ve asked more. I would’ve answered.”

“Not when you sister was around and looked so annoyed.”

“She was pretending not to notice anything.”

“I see,” Neel said, nodding as if all of a sudden he understood Mohini.

“What was Jeeta like?” Sarina asked.

“She wasn’t quite as scary as her sister,” Neel said. I raised my eyebrows at him. “Not scary at all.”

The world was spinning through the whirl of a rainbow, and I was in the midst of it. Oh, how I wished I could stop time just enough to take one deep breath.

The judge came in and asked if we wanted to go for a walk. Sarina looked at me. “Do you want to go?”

“It’s your birthday, you decide.”

“Let’s go,” she said, pulling my and Neel’s hands.

It was a typical December night: clear and crisp. The cars on Marine Drive were following a sleek curve, sliding past us smoothly. Mumbai’s traffic in the inner city where I lived was always chaotic. No one stayed in their lanes or observed any rules. Handcarts and big trucks, and occasionally, a stray dog or a cow made the creeping traffic come to a total stop. On Marine Drive, at night, there were only cars, black-and-yellow cabs, and a few red double-decker buses going by.

The light turned green for us and we crossed the road. Except for some spicy-peanut, puffed-rice, and fried-lentil vendors, and a couple of sugarcane vendors, there were few people on the wide footpath.