‘He was the best,’ Dhara agreed. ‘He was the only prince who could do it, so he won the princess Draupadi—’

‘And they got married and lived happily ever after?’ Smrithi asked.

‘Not quite—when Arjuna took Draupadi home to his mother, he knocked on her door and said, “Amma, look what I’ve brought you”. His mother didn’t turn around to see what he was talking about. She simply said: “Share it equally with your brothers, son”.’

‘What?’ The child looked at her with confusion.

‘Exactly—Arjuna’s mother told him to share it equally with his brothers! He couldn’t disobey his mother, so he had to share Draupadi. All five Pandava princes married her. And that is the story of Draupadi’s marriage.’

‘Wowee, mami—imagine if you had five husbands! If Amma told me to marry five boys, I would never. I’m not marrying one boy!’

Dhara laughed. ‘Amma would never tell you to marry five boys, mahal, don’t you worry about that. But Amma does tell you to share everything you have equally with your brother. That is the moral of the story—everything you have is his and everything he has is yours. You can’t gain anything by taking it away from him.’ She looked at her child closely, leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

‘It’s a big story for such a little girl,’ she whispered.

‘Someone should tell Vivek that story, he took my Princess Leia figurine and he won’t let me play with his Millennium Falcon.’

Dhara laughed and looked away, wiping her tears quickly.

‘When do you think you’ll be old enough to make your own rice balls?’ she asked, smiling, hoping the child would say ‘never’.

‘When I’m forty-two,’ Smrithi replied confidently.

‘Forty-two? That’s an enormous number.’

‘It’s the biggest number I know, after one hundred. How old will you be when I’m forty-two, Dhara mami?’ she asked. She swallowed her rice and opened her mouth waiting for another portion and the answer. Dhara placed another morsel of food in the child’s mouth.

‘Let’s see—I’ll be forty-two plus twenty-nine equals seventy-one. I’ll be seventy-one years old—even older than Clive or your grandparents are now. I’ll be so old that you’ll have to ball up my food and feed me!’

Smrithi laughed loudly, waking up the sleeping dog again. Her small body rocked back and forth with mirth.

‘You laugh just like your mother,’ Dhara said. She wanted to scoop her up and hold her.

‘Amma says I laugh just like you, mami,’ Smrithi replied, opening her mouth for more food.

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