‘The lodge has offered me a scholarship to study in England. They have awarded me the scholarship because they want me to work for them when I come back. I’m not planning to accept it,’ Sunil Seth said. ‘They cannot provide accommodation for you and Govinda. But the Australian option might work. I can’t live here with nine hundred million people and three billion mutts.’

‘Ha!’ Govinda imagined his mother smiling her deep, secret smile. ‘Forget this brotherhood of man. Without me, you are nothing!’

‘With three billion mutts I’m nothing. I can’t breathe.’

‘Can we be washed away in Australia?’ Govinda asked loudly. His parents could hear him. ‘Does nothing bad happen over there?’

The boy sat up in his bed and thought that this was a way to escape the hijra’s curse. He had lost interest in what his father was saying. He knew when he wasn’t sleepy and did not want to go to bed. He had his own convictions. He was about to get out of bed when his father poked his head into his bedroom and said, ‘Get to sleep.’ Despite this Govinda got out of bed and followed his father into the living room. Sunil Seth grabbed Govinda and scolded him for not being in bed. ‘Did you brush your teeth?’ he asked. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with a face towel and berated his son, even though it was clear Govinda was no longer paying attention to him.

‘What are you doing, Govinda?’

‘Leave him,’ said Gitanjali in a raised voice. Her face went red. ‘He wants to be involved…Why Australia?’

‘Nothing bad happens in Australia?’ asked Govinda.

‘Nothing like this happens in Australia,’ said Sunil Seth. ‘Australia is one of the most gorgeous places in the world. There are beaches with golden sand. Islands fringed with palm trees. Oceans full of whales and dolphins. Snow-covered mountains against tranquil green valleys.’

‘You live in a fantasy,’ said Gitanjali anxiously.

‘This is not a fantasy.’ Sunil Seth did everything to show his family that his spirits were high. Yet just as quickly he would explode, saying he was frustrated and tired of ‘corruption and pervasive negativity’ and ‘a lack of leadership’.

He noticed Govinda again. ‘What are you doing? And why aren’t you in bed?’

‘I don’t want to go to Australia. I want to stay here,’ said Govinda. ‘Would you leave my mother behind?’

The Sages

The Sages

The next morning the bazaar was bustling. People of every kind were at the historic market, fat old men, and thin young girls, men of style with Brylcreemed hair, middle-aged women selling and haggling at the same time. Bollywood hopefuls with tough, handsome faces were drinking tea and evaluating the foreigners that passed. From needles, sneakers, fat Japanese wristwatches, cassettes, ivory boxes, gold, turquoises, to rubber boots, there was nothing one could not buy. Brightly dressed shoppers quibbled with storekeepers.