‘What’s going on?’ I asked Ma, annoyed. Aunty V’s shriek was so sharp, it had most likely pierced my eardrum. Both of them were continued babbling, giggling and laughing until, finally, Ma controlled herself with a great deal of difficulty.

‘I’m sorry! I’m sorry!’ she said, and lapsed into giggles again.

I had never seen her like this. She was witty and said funny things all the time but I had never seen her laughing this much.

‘No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled like that!’ Aunty V said breathlessly. She wiped the tears from her eyes and then handed her phone to me.

It was open to the Facebook page of some middle-aged man. He looked serious and he was balding. He had a French beard and tufts of ear hair.

‘Who’s this?’ I asked, handing the phone back to her.

Papa took the phone and frowned at it.

‘This is Ashwin,’ Ma said. Papa seemed to recognize the name.

‘And?’ I asked, still looking at the two of them in confusion. Ma actually blushed a little.

‘Your mother had a crush on him for the longest time,’ Papa said, rolling his eyes.

‘Eww. That uncle?’ I asked, dismayed.

‘He didn’t look like that in college,’ Aunty V said with a smile.

‘Oh, he was such a catch back then!’ Ma said, almost dreamily.

Papa cleared his throat. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said huffily.

‘No, no, he was!’ Aunty V assured us. She giggled. ‘That’s why, seeing how he turned out, I just couldn’t believe it. And I screamed.’

‘He was such a charmer but also a little annoying in the way he’d keep telling people to call him Ash,’ Ma remembered.

‘Facebook is amazing, no?’ Aunty V asked. ‘Imagine reconnecting with everyone from back then? You know what we should do? Organize a college reunion! A reunion party!’ she clapped her hands.

Ugh. Facebook really was for Ma’s generation, I thought.

‘Err, Chitra needs to rest, V. In case you’ve forgotten?’ Papa reminded her.

Aunty V’s face fell for the barest of seconds before she recovered and smiled slyly. ‘Of course. You’d know better. You’re the one who got her in this state,’ she remarked.

Aaaa! I got up from there, excusing myself and went to my room before I could hear any more.

Much later, when I stepped out of my room, my nose quivered. Something was wrong. There was such a delicious aroma in the air that my stomach grumbled loudly. I followed my nose all the way to the kitchen where I saw Aunty V leaning over the stove and stirring something in a pot.

She saw me and smiled. ‘Come and stir this for me no?’ she requested.

I didn’t want to ask what she was making, but she announced it the moment I took the ladle from her.