‘Maygha?’ A nasal drawl rang out, startling me out of my wits and I stared wildly at the smiling guy who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere in front of me and was now holding out his hand. ‘It is so good to see you, Maygha! It’s been years, right? How cool is that!’

‘Huh? Oh hi—Gautam, right? Yeah, it’s good to see you too.’ I smiled weakly as Gautam sat down opposite me, belatedly realizing that I had completely forgotten the traditional Indian namaste that I had planned to greet him with. Damn Yudi and Priyanka! They had ruined everything! And what were they doing together, anyway? I realized that Gautam was saying something to me and tried to focus on him, shaking my head to clear visions of Yudi and Priyanka joined at the hip.

‘… so nice to speak with your mom after so many years, you know? And it is really nice to see you too! We must’a met last in school, right? Oh, and you have to call me Gomzi, okay?’ Gautam rambled on as he gazed at me appreciatively. Gomzi? I was beginning to feel the faint stirrings of a headache coming on. It really irritated me when Indians born and brought up in India acquired a Yankee accent overnight after going to the US. Plus, Gautam seemed to be using his accent at will, dropping it at times and peppering his sentences liberally with it at others. He also had this irritating habit of ending all his sentences like he was asking a question, making him sound like a human questionnaire.

He was pretty easy on the eyes though, I admitted to myself grudgingly as I discreetly checked him out. From what I remembered of Gautam in school, he had been one of the goody-goody, all-rounder types, excelling in both academics and sports. He had also been the school cricket-team captain in our final year, and he had retained the athletic build he’d had back then. All in all, pretty cute. Now if only he didn’t have that irritating accent.

‘Oh man, Eendia has changed so much, you know?’ Gautam announced, his face awash with wonder. ‘I mean, I got here in a prepaid, GPS-enabled cab? Who would have thought of that? And last night, we ordered a pizza from Domino’s for dinner, just like we do back home in California? How cool is that? You could’a knocked me down with a feather!’

He held his hands out and shook his head from side to side, looking like he had just discovered civilization on the moon and I felt again that bite of irritation.

‘So I guess California is home for you now, huh?’ I asked Gautam and he nodded his head vigorously.

‘It’s the best! I moved there ten years ago and I don’t think I can ever live any place else, you know? Of course Mumbai is great too. I mean, look how the place has changed? I mean, you have malls and everything!’