Druhi stopped dead in her tracks when she saw him and began to sob silently.

‘It’s okay,’ Eram said, awkward as dammit. He didn’t know whether to pat her shoulder or offer a hug or what, so he did nothing. ‘It’s okay,’ he said again.

Druhi sniffed one last time, wiped her eyes with a pristine white handkerchief and smiled at him. She mimed sipping from a cup and the popping open of a can of soda. Would you like some tea? Or a Coke?

She really is a class act, thought Eram. ‘No, thanks. I just wanted to say hi to, uh, to Mrs Rai. Is she around?’

Druhi shook her head. She gestured towards the seating area, indicating that Eram was welcome to wait.

Eram looked around at the Rais’ living room. The curtains were drawn shut even though it was only 3 p.m. The silence was oppressive and he could feel his heart thudding in his chest. All of a sudden, he couldn’t bear to be there for a second longer. He started backing towards the elevator doors.

‘You know what, it’s cool. I’ll just come back another time.’

Wait, Druhi signed with open palms. Please wait. One minute. Then she was gone, clipping up the staircase to the upper floor without waiting for an answer.

Eram knew. He knew even before he heard the babbling what it was that Druhi was carrying.

It’s not a what. It’s a who.

Eram retreated a few steps on reflex until he fell back on to a couch without meaning to. And just like that, he found himself cradling a fat baby in his arms.

Who knows what sorcery babies possess. The power they wield over the human heart. Maybe it was that clean, vaguely milky smell that Eram caught a whiff of, or the way she tried to eat his thumb. Maybe he saw Gehna in the shine of her ever-wide eyes. Whatever it was, Eram, who had never held a baby before, never even seen one up-close, was hooked. He was in love.

‘If I’m ever run over by a bus,’ Gehna had once said to him, ‘I want you to promise me something.’

‘You’re not going to be run over—’

‘I want you to be a friend to my daughter. She’ll need a friend in this crazy world. And I want you to tell her how cool her mom was. Promise me, Rat.’

‘Listen, stoopid, you’re not going to—’

‘Promise.’

Eram had promised. So now, that same afternoon, he took his first step towards fulfilling the promise by trying to teach baby Sitara her mom’s name.

‘Gehna,’ he said.

The baby gurgled.

‘Gehna,’ he said again.

Gehna Gehna Gehna Gehna Gehna Gehna Gehna

You can rub the shine off of most names by saying them a lot.