Mixed Masala

Chapter 7

It was almost the end of July and Vidhya, Will and Haresh had returned to Chicago more than three weeks before. Meera had returned to her town house much to her aunt's disappointment.

"Why don't you just stay with us?" she had asked when Meera had finally gotten up the nerve to inform her aunt that she was leaving nearly a week after Vidhya's departure. "It's just the two of us here and we've been together so long that we've run out of things to talk about. It's nice to have company, especially if it's you. We would love for you to stay with us. Why won't you, Meera?"

Meera had smiled affectionately at her aunt. "Because I'm going to become really, really fat if I continue to stay here and eat all this wonderful rich meals you make every day!" she had said, hugging her aunt. "I love you, Valiamma, but my place is so much closer to work ... and I'd get on your nerves within the month if I stayed any longer. After all, I am your sister's daughter!"

Sarala had grudgingly let her go and Meera was now back to her usual routine again, spending most evenings at home, except during the weekends when she either went to visit Jayashree or simply went out with her two best friends.

Kavitha Raman and Sudha Ratnam had been her friends ever since they had attended the same school together years ago back in Ipoh. All three girls had gone their separate ways after secondary school but had never lost touch.

Kavitha was genial and outspoken. She was as a legal assistant for a law firm in Kuala Lumpur and was engaged to be married sometime the following year (the actual date had not been decided yet). She had met her fiancé, a fellow Malaysian, in Birmingham where she had obtained her law degree. Rakesh was also a lawyer, but his firm operated from Penang, his hometown. The couple took turns almost every weekend driving almost four hours up (or down) to see each other. It was Rakesh's turn this week but since he worked until noon on Saturdays, he would only arrive sometime the following evening. Thus, Kavitha was free to hang out with the girls on most Friday nights.

Sudha, in contrast, was a quiet and demure girl. She was a nursery school teacher in a well-respected establishment in Petaling Jaya and she thrived on working with little children.

"I don't know how you can do it," Kavitha often proclaimed. "There's no way I would voluntarily spend so much time with so many little tyrants. I swear I would go mad!"

"As though you are sane now!" Meera would say in Sudha's defence.

It was in fact Sudha's parents who owned the town house where Meera stayed. Sudha herself lived on the ground floor with her parents but more often than not, she would be at Meera's whenever she got the chance.

This Friday night, the girls had plans to catch a movie at one of the many big malls in the city. Sudha trudged her way into Meera's place at around six o'clock looking completely forlorn. Kavitha had arrived just moments earlier and had volunteered to be the designated driver for the evening. All three girls had their own cars but always took turns driving whenever they went out together.

"They're bugging me again," Sudha sighed as she slumped heavily into an armchair. "This time it's a dentist from Puchong."

"What happened to the doctor from Kulim?" Meera asked, only too aware of Sudha's parents' goal to get their daughter "married off ... latest by the end of 2008".

"I don't know ... and I really don't care," Sudha groaned. "It's a dentist this week."

"If only you had met him way back when you had to have retainers. It would have saved your parents a bundle if you had been sleeping with ..." Kavitha broke off as Sudha threw a cushion at her.