In any other circumstance, all of this pilpul and Talmudic disputation displayed by his students, not to mention the laudatory manifestation of the desire to adhere to the law to the strictest hairsplitting letter, would have been a source of extreme pride to Rabbi Assi, confirmation that all of his teachings had penetrated and taken root in the minds and hearts of his flock. But now he was growing increasingly impatient, their momentum was slipping away. And then their situation turned utterly hopeless. A pack of gray monkeys led by Fetter Feivish leaped into the bedroom, invading the premises through the door that the rabbi and his men had carelessly left open. The monkeys seemed to know who the enemy was, I believe by a sign from Manika who understood how to communicate with them, and began to harass them mercilessly, swatting them with their tails, climbing up their legs and onto their shoulders, nipping at their fingers, tugging their side-curls, pulling off their black flying saucer hats and putting them on their own heads, like in the children’s story about the caps for sale once so beloved by my daughter Maya, so that in the end the rabbi had no choice but to turn and abandon the battlefield, shouting at me as he and his raiders made their exit that he washed his hands of all of it, it was now all on my head, I would pay a very heavy price for it if not in this life then in the next, I might be the daughter but in this situation I was tantamount to the son, the rebellious and wayward son, condemned to death by stoning.

At this juncture I feel it is necessary and appropriate to pause for a moment in my narrative of these traumatic events to acknowledge my debt to Manika. There is no doubt in my mind that without Manika, I would not have been able to honor my mother by carrying out her last wishes exactly as she had mandated them to me, I would not have been able to pull it off on my own. It was during the period between Ma’s disappearance and the immolation of the shell she had left behind that Manika’s extraordinary administrative and managerial powers and her fierce loyalty came to the fore—attributes that continued to enrich my life, for she remained at my side for many years after. After it was all over, I presented her with a thank-you gift of a perfect new set of teeth made to order, brought her to Mumbai with me where she served as my daughter Maya’s ayah, and, as an extra bonus, engaged a private tutor to teach her how to read. But during those terrible dark hours, when I was confined like a captive to the bedside on guard duty, it was Manika who took care of everything and made all the arrangements, operating on her own initiative, without requiring instructions or even a list, which she would not at that time have been able to read in any event. She knew exactly what had to be done, she did not have to be told, she stored it all in her head and made everything happen. Truly, she is my gem, to quote the rebbetzin, the jewel in my crown.