Mixed Masala

Chapter 4

"So when do you have to get back to work?" Vidhya asked Meera as they sat at the breakfast table the next morning savouring the hot thosai and chutneys that Nura had expertly prepared.

It was close to eleven o'clock and the rest of the household had already had their fill. In fact, except for Jayashree and Ravi, everyone else had gone out. The girls' fathers had taken their wives out shopping, Vidhya's husband had taken Haresh to the mall to catch a movie and Raj had gone off to visit some old friends.

"I have to be back at the office on Wednesday," Meera replied, helping herself to some more sambar. "So I'm hitching a ride back with Jaya Akka tomorrow night."

Jayashree walked into the kitchen at that moment, dressed in a powder blue churidar. "You two finally up?" she asked, mixing a cup of Horlicks for herself and joining them at the table. "Must have been up pretty late chatting away, huh?"

Meera smiled. "And we're not even halfway done yet."

Vidhya stifled a yawn as Jayashree leaned closer and whispered. "Would your conversations have included a certain cousin of Ravi's who has recently had the misfortune of meeting our mother?"

Vidhya giggled as Meera grumbled. "Oh, not that again! Honestly, you'd think Amma caught us having sex instead of just talking!"

"Meera!" her sister exclaimed. "You can be so crude sometimes."

But Meera simply shrugged and tucked into her second thosai.

"Well," Jayashree said finally. "For what it's worth, my husband had to undergo two hours' of non-stop third-degree late last night."

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry about that," Meera said, shaking her head. "Amma is completely mad as usual."

Jayashree nodded. "So anyway, she now has a complete history of one poor soul named Suresh Menon, whose only fault seems to be to have chatted up the wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Meera remained silent as her sister took a sip of her drink and sat back in her chair. "So, what would you like to know about Suresh?" Jayashree asked, her eyes twinkling.

Meera sighed. "Nothing."

She was starting to wish she had never met the guy in the first place.

Jayashree winked at Vidhya and said, "Okay, so I guess you don't want to know that he has been asking Ravi about you on and off over the past year."

Meera looked at her sister, her eyes narrowed. "You're making that up!"

Her sister chuckled. "I swear it's the truth! Ravi told me so himself yesterday. He hadn't thought much about it before but after Amma's gruelling interrogation session ..." She broke off and took another sip from her cup.

"Oh my God!" Meera exclaimed for the second time that morning. "He didn't tell her that, did he?"

Jayashree smiled. "Of course not, but you have to hand it to Ravi. The man stood his ground firmly and survived General Lakshmi's rapid-fire round of questioning." She grinned as she added, "I'm so proud of him."

"Where is he anyway?" Vidhya asked, spooning a little more coconut chutney onto her plate.

"On the telephone with one of his hypochondriac patients," Jayashree replied as she dropped an idli onto her plate and drowned it with a combination of sambar and chutney.

Vidhya gave Meera a cheeky look as she cleared her throat and asked quietly, "So, tell me more. Meera may not be interested but I am."

Jayashree smiled as her sister threw her hands up in defeat. "Well, Suresh is Ravi's mother's cousin sister's only son. He's twenty nine (in fact his birthday was just a few days ago, on June 4th) and works for a firm of consultant engineers in Kuala Lumpur. He himself is a mechanical engineer, having obtained first his Degree and then his Masters from the UK. He earns a pretty high salary ... even by KL standards." She paused, helped herself to another idli and continued, "His father, Prabhagaran Menon, is a retired civil engineer and his mother is, and always has been, a very capable housewife. They have an older daughter but Suresh is their one and only son and therefore the proverbial apple of their eye."