‘No … I don’t want this.’ Vicky crinkled his nose. For a moment Anu contemplated guzzling down the fare herself. She was no less a chocoholic than her son. But she was not in the mood to squander her calories burnt during yoga on Nutella. She had to save those for the dinner with Sameer.

Anu spent another ten minutes to serve her little kingpin what he wanted. Next, she had to tackle dressing him.

‘Vicky, you need to change. What do you want to wear?’ It was best to give him the choice.

‘I don’t want to change.’ He began to get more and more comfortable playing with his trucks. Though he looked adorable in his monster-truck nightshirt and jungle-print underwear, her mother severely disproved of such cuteness. She would say, ‘Not enough if you dress up, Anu. You must make Vicky ready too. If you don’t teach him now, he will turn into one of those boys with spiky hair and torn pants.’

The negotiation went on for five minutes before Vicky agreed to wear a Superman T-shirt with red shorts. Luckily, with the underwear inside. Then Anu got dressed and decided to leave the dishes as they were. What could happen in a day?

Finally on the road, Anu turned on the radio. ‘Mumma, no your songs. Play rhymes.’

Anu sighed turning on yet another rendition of wheels-of-the-bus. Lately, her bathroom singing started with Bits-of-Paper and ended with Twinkle-Twinkle. She spent most of her time with Vicky at home and twenty more Vickys at school.

Parking the car, Anu pushed the door open to her parents’ house. Seven-thirty, not bad at all. Anu felt very pleased with herself. Her parents never bolted the front door because they had a steady stream of visitors. Even if a thief walked in, her mom would automatically serve him coffee and snacks.

‘Did you park the car properly? Our street is a mess—every household has three cars and zero parking space. The corporation does nothing about this menace.’ Anu’s father greeted her from behind the newspaper.

‘Papa! Can’t you first say hello like all normal people? Then vent about parking and current politics?’ Anu went into the kitchen.

Her father had a spot bang in the middle of the living room—an oversized sofa chair right in front of the TV. All the other furniture stood awkwardly around the chair.

‘Veekuu! Come here to Tata!’ His tone changed to a silly singsong when he saw Vicky. The boy went running to his grandfather. Anu wondered what was wrong with Vicky! How can someone find her father entertaining enough to rush to?