‘Shh … don’t be silly. This lane is yet to be built that’s all.’ Sanju seemed to be convincing himself rather than her. ‘The house may be nice. All the houses thus far are.’

The agent stopped in front of that lone house which stopped Anu in the tracks. She could not imagine how someone had managed to turn such a good-looking house into a dump—dried up bushes in the garden, large black garbage bags filled with stuff strewn on the unwashed driveway, worn-out paint, mud-caked front porch.

‘Don’t you have any other house to show us? This looks like an abandoned godown.’ Anu expressed her sentiments to the agent without looking at Sanju.

The agent turned to her, still on the phone. ‘You can make it look like a house. The tenents still live here. So expect people inside.’

Anu felt incredulous. Who shows a house which is still inhabited? A lanky teenager answered the door and shouted. ‘Someone to see the house.’

A woman, who looked sort of old and haggard in a nightie, turned up carrying a toddler. Anu’s heart went out for her. So unfair that lately many working couples dumped their children on grandparents.

The woman looked too tired to even stop the child who was banging two plates together. Anu, to ease the situation, asked her with a bright smile. ‘What is your grandkid’s name? He is cute.’

The woman knitted her brows at Anu and snapped. ‘She is my daughter.’

Ooops. That did not go too well. The agent flashing a look of disgust at Anu beckoned them to see the house. The woman led the way.

‘We are moving to Mumbai next week. So in a hurry to find a tenant,’ said the woman as she walked up the stairs. Anu noticed that not an inch of the wall was left free of Crayon marks. Ha! The joke was on Sanju. He wanted a nicer house than theirs and look what he found! A hellhole!

The woman pushed open the door to a room where a man was snoring. Anu’s bedroom looked like Marie Condo’s compared to that! As they moved to the room next to it, Sanju hopped back in horror and screamed, ‘Poop on the floor! Anu, watch out!’

Anu had to stifle a giggle that bubbled up. Sanju was not in the mood to see the rest of the house. So walking out, Anu waylaid the agent who was still on the phone. ‘Are you showing us more houses?’

The man muffled the phone and looked at Anu like she was a flee. ‘What is wrong with this one?’

‘Nothing. It was extraordinary!’ Anu couldn’t help her sarcasm. ‘Just want to some ordinary ones.’