This continued over the next few weeks. He would send me a message or a joke and I would respond. Then he wouldn’t reply for a day or two. There wasn’t any flirtation whatsoever.

Whatever it was we had shared in Bangalore had run its course. I just had to accept it.

27

My exams were upon me before I even knew it.

I hadn’t met Nisha or Anirudh apart from a half-hour quick catch-up over coffee the day we went to college to collect our hall tickets. No one spoke much. Everyone was worried about the impending exams and what it meant for our future. I’d pushed Raghu out of my mind for the moment.

On the day of the first exam, I woke up, my stomach twisting with nervousness. I had practised a couple of old exam papers and I felt somewhat ready. I had studied as well as I could and was glad that Raghu wasn’t around being a big distraction. His mother was distracting enough already, as she made all the desserts Ma kept demanding. The fridge was like Kryptonite for me and I gave it a wide berth whenever I went into the kitchen.

Ma was now nearing the end of her second trimester and it was getting difficult for her to move around. After that scare the previous month, she had been taking it easy, but she was getting bored.

Papa got her a Kindle. When I left my room that morning, wishing my stomach would settle down and stop acting funny, I found her reading.

‘All set?’ she asked. She was lying down on the sofa.

‘Sort of,’ I told her as I sat down at the sofa and put on my shoes.

‘Eat something and go?’ she suggested.

‘Wouldn’t be a good idea today.’ The very thought of food was going to make me puke.

‘You’re going to write an exam on an empty stomach?’ she asked.

‘Let’s not start this now, Ma,’ I told her, getting up.

But Aunty V caught me in the hall and dragged me to the dining room. She had apparently made a full breakfast for me.

Aloo paratha with yoghurt and French toast. And there was a fruit salad as well—chopped fruits generously covered with condensed milk. Aaargh!

‘So what’s it going to be. Sweet or savoury?’ she asked.

Maybe I could escape if I told her I’d take some and go. I went to the kitchen, grabbed some foil and wrapped up a paratha in it.

‘I’ll eat it on the way,’ I lied.

‘Don’t think I haven’t noticed what’s been going on all these days I’ve been here with you all,’ she said quietly.

I frowned. Aunty V had chosen a fine time for a confrontation. ‘Aunty V, can we talk about this when I come back?’ I asked.