‘I’ve dropped my Saturday afternoon clinic so I can coach you every week,’ he said. ‘We could start with the renal system. I’ve made some diagrams …’

He never dropped his afternoon clinic. Suddenly she was more afraid of forgetting the parts of the renal system and confusing it with the hepatic system than she was of anything else.

‘All right, Appa,’ she replied, rubbing a tear in the skin around her nail. It hurt. ‘I’ll try—I’ll study medicine.’ He patted her hand awkwardly and she smiled back, a little tearfully.

•

Rajan reached towards the temple lamp with his hands. Then he touched his face, taking his final blessing from the priest. He placed a donation in the box by the statue of Lord Ganesha and lay facedown on the temple’s stone floor, arms outstretched in front of him. He offered himself prostrate before the Elephant God at the beginning and end of each temple visit. He followed a routine for prayer.

Nala approached the deities a little more spontaneously, depending on which god or goddess she needed particular help from, or which of her friends were praying in the temple that day.

As he stood up, he straightened his clothes and scanned the congregation for his wife. She was in the corner of the hall next to the Amman deity. Not surprisingly, the Mother Goddess sat benevolently ignored, as Nala and a group of ladies chatted and laughed. She waved jauntily as he crossed the temple towards her. He stood on the outside of her circle and whispered, ‘I think we should go now, your Amma will be waiting for us at home and Archi needs her medicine.’

He always gave Archi her medication, not trusting Ayah or even Nala to do it. Archi faded in and out of reality but somehow for him she was always present and smiling.

He guided Nala to the exit. ‘I’ve finished praying and I don’t think you’ve even started.’

Her nose reddened. ‘I’ve been praying for the last hour actually. Who are you? My spiritual invigilator? The Prayer Police? We have two daughters who’ll need to be married soon. Where do you think those marriages will be arranged? In your surgery? Hardly.’ He tried not to smile at the word ‘marriage’.

On the way home they stopped at Vani’s house to pick up the girls. Although Dhara hadn’t moved back with her mother, she spent more time there now. Vani had set up a little room for her, but Dhara preferred to sleep in her mother’s arms when she visited, even though she was twenty years old.

On the drive back, he suggested they have an ice cream at Galle Face Green. Nala raised her eyebrows.