Yusuf smiled and looked at the waves of the sea. He could see a boat far away tossing on the waves. The back of the boat looked so submerged in the water that it gave the impression that the entire boat would slide into the sea. But the boat, riding the waves, would rise again. Then it once again gave the impression of going under and rising again. After observing this, he turned to Hina and said, ‘The human himself is a question mark.’ Hina looked into his eyes. Those eyes were full of seriousness, as if they were made to see the world from a distinct perspective.

She said, ‘You have become so serious. You never used to talk like this before.’

‘Yes, a little bit … Now everyone asks me whether I realize it or not.’ He told Hina that he was studying those books which raised a lot of questions about the condition in which we all lived, about human existence, delusions, the being, the soul and about the world itself. Aymal had given him these books two years back. Yusuf advised Hina to try and learn about other things along with what was prescribed in the college syllabus. Hina nodded her head in agreement. He was about to say something when two eunuchs walked up to him. He took out his wallet and gave a coin to one of them. Hina was trying to control her embarrassed smile. Yusuf gauged her embarrassment and said, ‘Do you know what they symbolize?’

‘No, I don’t, Papa.’

‘They symbolize the one who has made everything.’

‘What?’ The word slipped her mouth suddenly. Yusuf burst out in laughter.

‘In a few years you will get the answer to this “what” on your own,’ he said and stood on the wall. He looked down from there. A lot of insects were crawling on the stones attached to the wall. They made Yusuf think that if someone took a look at the earth from the sky or a star up above, the humans would look like insects crawling everywhere on the buildings and roads.

On seeing him stand, Hina also followed suit. She looked at Chowpatty from the sea wall. She was reminded of the time her teacher had told the class that this area was called Queen’s Necklace; Hina had asked herself why such a name was chosen. This made her accept that truly the area was like a queen’s necklace. The buildings surrounding the shore were like the gems studded on a necklace.

On the first day of college, Hina met Vidhi Singh, a girl from the North-east. Their conversation turned into friendship. They started wandering together in malls, shopping centres and cafeterias of western Mumbai. Vidhi Singh lived in a government girls’ hostel near the college. Her hometown was Darjeeling, where her family ran tea plantations as an inherited business. She had passed her tenth standard with distinction while studying in one of the best missionary schools in Darjeeling. Her father had published three collections of poems in English and occasionally she also indulged in poetry-writing. Hina was impressed with Vidhi’s free and casual lifestyle.