‘Daddy! Who is this friend bent on ruining my nap?’ Anu rolled her eyes at her father and began to construct a lie on the fly for Vicky. ‘Vicky, they are too little to be away from their mummas. They will cry all night if we take them away now.’

‘You become its mumma.’

‘I can. But I have to turn into a dog then. Then you won’t have a mumma. Is that okay?’

Vicky giggled. ‘You can’t turn into a dog!’

‘Oh, I can. If I have to become the puppy’s mumma, I must.’ Now there was doubt in Vicky’s eyes. He left it at that and ran inside.

As Anu began to go up the stairs, her father’s voice stopped her. ‘Anu, take this and file it.’

Anu took the envelope her father handed her. What could that be? The moment she read the address on it, her heart sank. It was from the post office. She opened it slowly as her father got immersed in his paper. It was a receipt for payment of one-and-a-half lakhs. What did that mean? Had daddy paid up?

‘Daddy,’ Anu began to speak before her father cut her off.

‘Keep the receipts because they have the account number.’ He spoke without looking up from the paper. ‘I have transferred another fifty thousand to your account.’

Anu’s eyes started welling up again. She did not deserve such good parents. ‘Daddy, sorry I used up—’

She was stopped mid-sentence again. ‘Turn on the AC when you sleep. You need to run it at least a few hours every week.’ He knew she loved to keep the AC on and cuddle with a blanket. Her parents cared to know everything about her and went out of the way to make her happy.

‘Okay, thanks,’ Anu murmured and started up the stairs.

‘Anu,’ her father again. ‘Ask me if you have expenses. You are between jobs so it is okay to ask.’

Anu flopped on her bed and did not try to stop the tears. She did not know why she was crying but she had to get the silly tears out of the system. They threatened to come out too often lately.

Sunday morning Anu visited Sanju’s parents. While her parents’ house spelt food, entertainment and mirth (not to mention healthy bickering), Sanju’s did calm, orderly and neat. Nobody raised voices, laughed too loudly or played TV on high volume. A combination of those two households would be utopia, mused Anu.

‘Good morning, Anu.’ That was her father-in-law wishing her politely. He took Vicky by hand to show the squirrels in the garden.

Anu’s mother-in-law greeted her with a friendly smile, as she always did. ‘Sit down, Anu. Watch some TV while I make tea.’