“Ever since you’ve become friends with Sarina you think you’re just like her. If a crow flies with a swan, that doesn’t make the crow a swan. She’s an only daughter, you remember that,” Mummy said. “These days, an only girl is as good as a boy. She inherits everything, and some parents even let her perform the last rites, so it makes no difference. The laws have changed now, but in olden times if one didn’t have a son, the inheritance went to nephews or cousins.”

Was I a crow flying with a swan? And what if I were? There is nothing wrong with that as long as the crow and the swan are friends and want to be together. I thought about asking Mummy, May I go to the swan’s house? But it wasn’t the best way or the right time to ask. At three-thirty I volunteered to make tea, and that pleased Mummy.

While I was making tea, I thought about Mohini. How I missed her on Sundays. I wished she’d married someone like Girishji and could come home every Sunday. After everyone had sipped and slurped their tea from cup and saucer, I asked Mummy if I could go to Sarina’s house.

“Go, if you want to, but be back by nine.”

“I will,” I said, singing inside, Yes, yes, yes, five hours to spend with Sarina!

When I got to Sarina’s house she was taking a shower. There was no one there except Neel. “So how did the last exam go?” he asked as we sat on the balcony off the living room.

“The last one was the best.”

“Was it history?” he said, bringing his chair closer to me.

“Yes. How did you know?”

“How could I not know?”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve been studying in the same house for the past month. I’d have to be really gamaar, dull, not to notice what you enjoy and what you don’t.”

“Are you saying you’re not gamaar?”

Neel bent toward me and, half whispering, said, “What do you think?”

“Does it matter?”

“If it didn’t matter, why would I ask you?” He sat back in his chair and pierced me with his steady gaze.

My heart pounded, dhamak dhum, dhum, dhamak, dhum, getting louder by each beat. I focused my attention on a palm frond rocking back and forth. “Because you want me to say, ‘Neel, you’re not gamaar, you’re brilliant.’”