Mallika: Rama, Lakshmana, and Surpanakha
1980
Randhir and Vineet came home for a month in July, and the morning after his arrival, Randhir dropped in and greeted me with a big hug.
‘Now he’s hugging you too? What is all this nonsense?’ Ma demanded after he left.
Randhir threw an I’m-back-from-America party.
‘Imagine, I already have a Volvo and a credit card,’ Vineet said. We were on the terrace. Downstairs, ‘Stairway to Heaven’ was blaring into the night.
‘What’s a Volvo?’ I asked.
There was a stunned silence.
‘It’s a car, Mallika,’ Vineet said faintly.
‘But… how would I know? I haven’t been to America.’
‘It’s a Swedish car,’ Arnav said.
‘How are we to know about foreign cars when there are only three cars in India?’ Prabha said, taking a drag from Arnav’s joint. She was here
