‘But it isn’t safe, is it? Do you boil it?’

‘Sometimes, when there is enough firewood.’

Anchita went into the kitchen. Its walls were of twigs and mud, and there were holes in it, high up near the ceiling. She couldn’t tell if they were made on purpose, like vents, or the kitchen walls had cracked over time. It was dark inside, and there was a faint smell.

‘What is that smell?’

Korok came back in.

‘What smell?’

‘That one. Can’t you smell it too?’

Korok sniffed a little.

‘Um, it could be the fermented beans I made some days ago.’

‘Some days ago? So how does it smell when you make it? No wonder your goat doesn’t come in here.’

It must be a very strong smell, Anchita thought.

There was an old empty tin of soya chunks lying next to a cooking pot on a mud hearth. She picked it up.

‘Oh, look! This one too! I know this brand, and this one is fake as well. Who are these people who make fake products like this? Korok, is everything that you eat or use fake? That can’t be. Is it?’

Korok thought about it. The tins and tubes Anchita was talking about were all he had ever seen. He had never actually gone to the trader’s shop and asked for a specific brand. He only asked for products, and these were what he got. That people could choose what to eat or use, he had never really thought of.

‘The trader brings these to the shop from the fair price dealer in Balangir. All of us here use them. We have been using them forever.’

Korok hobbled back to his bed and sat on it.

‘Don’t even think of doing the dishes.’

Korok smiled, suddenly shy and grateful.

‘I won’t,’ he said.

Anchita nearly stamped her foot. She knew a girl in her old school who would actually stamp her foot in rage. It was very funny to see. Nobody could take someone like that seriously, she had always thought.

‘I don’t understand you, Korok. You got beaten up and injured by those … those horrible policemen yesterday, the government is going to dig up your hill and send you away somewhere else, your father is in jail for something he didn’t do, you have been using fake products all your life because you don’t get any other products in these parts, you have been sitting there all bent and hunched because your back hurts. And you are smiling! Not a word of complaint. Not a single whine. They even took your bicycle. Aren’t you angry? You should be, shouldn’t you? Don’t you ever get angry?’