But Sanju hadn’t cheered up even by next morning. As Sameer had pointed out, Sanju was not one of those chirpy kind of men but even by his standards, he was too mopey. By afternoon, when he was walking around, moodily picking things up and tidying the edges of the sofa covers, Anu decided enough was enough.

‘Sanju, why are you looking like death? What’s wrong?’

‘I am not heading a happiness project like you, Anu. Allow me to be how I am.’

‘Well, your ways affect the progress of my happiness project.’ Anu flashed him a murderous look. ‘So, spill it, Sanju. Did you lose your job? Do you have VD? Do you—’

‘Stop, Anu!’ Sanju shrugged in despair. ‘There is nothing wrong per se. Just that I don’t want to live like this.’ He pointed around him.

Anu was taken aback. The messy house is causing this distress? He wasn’t even around for three months to see the mess!

‘Hey, we can clean it up. No big deal.’ Anu tried not to sound offended, though she amply was.

‘No, Anu. Not the mess.’ Sanju added quickly, ‘Not just the mess, at least. I want a better lifestyle. Like what my boss has in the US. His suburban house was straight out of a magazine. He dines in style, drives in style, lives in style. Period.’ Sanju always acquired an accent and Americanisms like Period when he returned from the US.

Anu furrowed her brows in disbelief. ‘You want to move to the US?’

Sanju shook his head. ‘No. Don’t panic. Even if we move there, it will take a decade before we can afford that life. And, with the policies of Trump, moving to the US is not even a possibility. I want to live that life here. It is possible, you know.’

Anu remained silent waiting for Sanju to finish. She could not gauge what his angle was.

‘See, we could have lived in the US but you never wanted to move. So I gave that up. Look at the roads here, the traffic, the footpath, the noise—I want to live in a place that at least shields us from all this.’

‘Where is such a place, Sanju?’ Anu felt an irrational anger rise within her. When anyone criticized Bangalore, her antennas went up. She loved her city with all its trappings.

‘Let us move to a nice house in a classy neighbourhood. A villa in North Bangalore, like in Hennur or Hebbal. Like the one Dave rents when he is in India.’

Anu almost jumped back in horror. Her mouth went dry, and her heartbeat became erratic. What is he saying? He knew she did not have the stomach for such drastic changes in life! He knew that for more than a decade. ‘Hennur! That is not even Bangalore! Hope you will get over this thought once you are not jetlagged.’