Ajay Rai thought it easily the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard, but he didn’t want to say that to his daughter in her fragile state. He was also, in a strange way, proud of Gehna for being such an idealist. He couldn’t tell her that either as it might have encouraged her; he didn’t want to come home one day to find that she had given away his ultra-HD flat-screen TV to some lucky bastard. ‘That’s nice, sweetheart, but he—this guy you read about—had already lived a full life by then. He didn’t start wandering the earth as a teenager, did he? I’m saying, just live a little first. Travel everywhere. Start a family. Run a successful business. Then do whatever you want with your money.’

Gehna opened her eyes and shot him a knowing look. ‘You’re mad that I stole all that food from the kitchen, aren’t you? You’re saying it wasn’t mine to give away?’

Ajay put his hands up. ‘Hey, listen, as far as I’m concerned, my life is much improved when there’s no tinned sweet corn in the house. Your mother, on the other hand . . .’

‘You can’t tell her about this. You just can’t. If I have to go fifteen rounds with Nina right now I will perish. Promise you won’t tell?’

‘I promise,’ Ajay said.

Of course, Nina Rai found out anyway and, of course, she went postal. Gehna held her tongue until the storm of her mother’s outrage had blown by. She was thinking about what Ajay had said. To change the world, she needed money. As soon as she could, Gehna escaped to her room and took a long, long, bath. Then she texted Eram.

11

Eram had a sick feeling in his stomach.

‘I don’t understand where you got that kind of money anyway. Is it yours?’ he asked.

‘I’ve told you ten times already. Each set of my grandparents is giving me one lakh for my birthday. Actually, they’ve already put it in my bank account. It’s my eighteenth, so they’re making a big fuss. Usually I get, like, chocolates or a T-shirt that doesn’t fit me,’ Gehna said.

She turned a bit and threw a leg over both of Eram’s to anchor herself. They were lying down next to each other on his single bed and she felt as though she might fall off any second. It didn’t make it any easier that Eram was being so antsy.

‘Okay, so, wait,’ he said, holding a finger in the air like he was testing the direction of the wind. ‘You’re saying you’ll give me all this money so I can enter the tournament. And in return, I give you twenty-five lakhs from my winnings. Right?’

‘Invest, not give. You invest twenty-five lakhs of your winnings in my soon-to-be-highly-profitable business venture. Ajay says I need at least that much for operational expenses. You know, I have to say, for a math wiz, you’re being quite dense.’