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it.’
    Raman did not know what to think. When things were not right between Shagun and himself it felt as though the centre of his world was hollow. Yet the demands of his work forced him to be away long hours, thinning the connection between them.
    He turned to his parents.
    ‘I’ll be travelling more than usual in the next few months.’
    ‘Hai Ram,’ said his mother. ‘What do they want? Your life’s blood? These days you are looking so tired. If you fall sick then who will be there for you?’
    Raman refused to rise to this bait, dangled over him these past twelve years, of an uncaring wife and him a self-sacrificing overworked provider.
    ‘Ma, don’t you understand? I am involved in a very important campaign.’
    The mother, being the mother, persisted with unworkable solutions.
    ‘Why don’t you go for a holiday, beta? Let someone else do the work. Is there no one in that whole organisation but you?’
    ‘I am the Mang-oh! man, you know that. How can anyone else take my brief?’
    The father said, ‘Do not worry, beta. We will look after Shagun and the children. What are parents for, after all?’
    Later, they commented on how drawn and pale their son looked. He was so reluctant to worry them, it was impossible to ever figure out what the matter was. They could only suffer anxiety as they guessed at his life.
    Helping out their daughter-in-law while her husband was away was easier said than done. They did appear at her doorstep unannounced as he had suggested, but he had also suggested a warm welcome. This was not forthcoming.
    ‘Beta, Raman said it is hard for you to manage alone,’ they offered in explanation, ‘in fact he was very insistent we come.’
    ‘It was unnecessary for Raman to put you to so much trouble; I have always managed alone.’
    ‘He even fixed this evening time. Said you would be home with the children.’
    ‘Then he fixed it without informing me. I would have made other plans if I had known. Just now I am going out. My mother is waiting at Priya.’
    ‘Priya? The movie hall?’
    ‘Yes. The children are very keen to see a film.’
    ‘Where are they?’
    ‘With her.’
    The thought of Mrs Sabharwal waiting with her grandchildren in a cinema complex, while Shagun was for some reason at home, was a strange one. Equally strange that their daughter-in-law, instead of including them in the expedition, should be ushering them politely out. They had travelled across Delhi for nothing and the car AC wasn’t even working. Dispirited, they drove back.
    ‘Imagine – he told his parents to check on me.’
    ‘Poor bugger, he must be sensing something.’
    ‘He likes to feel he is very sensitive.’
    ‘And he isn’t?’
    ‘Why are you taking his side? Do you want me to stay with him?’
    He tried to gather her in his arms but she pulled away and looked at him uncertainly.
    ‘You know what I want,’ he said.
    ‘How do I know you are not lying?’
    ‘Try me. This situation is not good for anybody.’
    By now she had understood that he was a man of narrow and intense passions, one who lived, slept and ate business. For the first time in his life he claimed he had found someone to put above his work. A bottle of Mang-oh! and thou, that were Paradise enow, he said.
    What was ‘enow’?
    Archaic English for enough. Learned it in school.
    You were taught about Paradise enow?
    Yup.
    And you remember?
    Everything I learnt.
    She traced the silvering hair at his temples with her finger. ‘And what are you learning now – here – with me? How to make a married woman love you?’
    ‘How to get the married woman to follow her heart as quickly as possible.’
    ‘You know that’s not going to happen.’
    ‘I know no such thing. Why is it so unthinkable?’
    ‘I can’t just leave, I can’t – don’t ask me – go if you like, but please don’t ask me.’
    ‘Darling, we have to talk about this.’
    ‘Why? Why can’t we just go on as we are?’
    ‘Because I want you with me for