“Mohini was ready to get married. Good horoscope match or not, I told her unless she was sure, she didn’t have to get married,” Pappa said.

“You did, Pappa?” The words sprang from my mouth. I didn’t know that Pappa had ever talked to Mohini about her marriage. I had a special relationship with Pappa. I talked too boldly and he encouraged and enjoyed me, but I had no idea that Mohini talked to him too.

“I must get going,” Pankaj Kaka said, looking at his watch and trying to trot out as gracefully as a camel.

On Sunday after Anoop and Mohini went to Matheran, a vacation place on the hills of the Western Ghatts near Mumbai, for their honeymoon, I went on the picnic with Neel and Sarina.

As soon as we entered the park surrounding the lake, the temperature dropped several degrees. The stately neem, the tall kesuda, and the wide banyan trees fanned us. Some of the mango trees were still in bloom and others were full of finger-long mangoes. The tiny mangoes swayed when the slightest breeze tickled them. Soon, these mangoes will swell so big they’ll dangle lazily, I thought.

“Shhh . . . choop,” Neel said, putting his finger to his mouth. We heard a sweet koo-hoo, koo-hoo, coming from the tree.

“A koyal?” I whispered. Neel nodded.

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard a koyal singing, but it was the first time I’d heard one with Neel. We stood there quietly, and after a few seconds, Neel pointed. “Look, there, black koyal.”

Seeing the black koyal singing on a tree branch sent a happy tingle through my heart.

After an hour of strolling, Neel and I sat down in the grassy shade of a neem tree. Sarina walked over to the playground. The tree murmured as the cool breeze coming off the lake played with its leaves.

What if Mummy finds out about this? What will she do? I shuddered at the thought.

Neel asked, “What’s bothering you, Jeeta?”

“Nothing,” I said, picking up a branch of ferny leaves from the neem tree.

“What is it?”

“It’s just that . . . I didn’t tell Mummy that the three of us were going together.”

“Your mummy doesn’t even know I exist.”

“I know, and . . .” I said, twisting the leaves around my fingers. A smell of bitter neem filled the air. I flung the branch as far as I could.

“And?”

“And Mummy wouldn’t allow me to go to Sarina’s house if she knew that Sarina had a cousin who came over. When she found out that Yamini had two older brothers it was settled. I could be Yamini’s friend at school, but I could never visit her at home.”

“I don’t want to cause any problems for you at home, and I certainly don’t want your friendship with Sarina to suffer because of me,” Neel said, looking away.