Her books and newspapers covered most of the sofa and all of the centre table and the dining table. Vicky’s toys took care of the floor. Anu walked to the bedroom with a foreboding that it was not going to be much better than the living room. She was not wrong—the bedroom had at least ten pieces of her unfolded clothes lying around, plus the new arrivals from her recent online shopping spree. There were more piles of Vicky’s clothes, some washed and some not that she could no longer tell apart without smelling.

Anu took a deep breath and wandered to the kitchen. As if her clutter wasn’t enough, some old brass vessels stared at Anu from a corner. In passing, Anu had mentioned to her mother that she wanted to buy some brassware to make her house look like Supriyaji’s. Her mother had acted on that immediately. ‘Anu, I have sent some brass things I had in the attic to your apartment. Shivanna has dropped them off.’ Anu now vaguely recollected her mother’s words. Her mother had palmed off the old things she had inherited from her mother-in-law. Now those dim, old, squarish vessels sat in a corner looking gloomier than Anu felt. What would Shivanna, her father’s lifelong office assistant who always wore ironed pearly-white shirts, have thought of this house? Anu wanted to crawl into a hole.

Anu sat on the sofa and thought. The only way to finish work is to start right away. She looked around to see where to begin newspapers—that was easy. The thing was, Anu loved newspapers, not so much for the main news but for the supplements that carried interesting stories of celebrities. She picked up an armful of papers and walked to the utility area where they stored them. Once she was at the spot, Anu knew why she hadn’t been putting the papers away. That area was already overflowing with papers. The glossy magazines had made a large chunk of papers slide off the pile. Anu sighed and marched back to the living room with the pile.

Dumping the papers on an already crowded table, she looked around again. Plates and cups. A dozen of them. Picking up the caked plates and cups, Anu walked to the kitchen sink. Why didn’t she put them away as soon as she ate? Well, because she watched TV while eating and how could she take a break in the middle of a show? Usually, the maid collected them from around the house and washed them. Once Anu reached the kitchen, she remembered there was a reason why she was leaving her plates about. With the case of the absent maid, the sink had more than its share of the burden.