The Folly of Love

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She went on to explain that she used to travel back and forth with her mother during the school years and then later decided to join a college in Ahmedabad. On his further questioning she explained that she was pursing her Bachelor of Arts with History as her major.

She had started working with the travel agency as an office assistant over her summer holidays after she had completed the first year of her degree course. During her time there, she had gained an insight into the tourism industry and felt drawn to the career prospect of becoming a tour guide. Her passion for history had found a practical application in the job market. The manager had grown fond of her and had helped her formulate a plan. The tourism diploma was a two-year course, and it was decided that it made sense for her to pursue it simultaneously as she completed her degree.

Once college resumed, she continued working part-time over the weekends. Slowly she started assisting with day tours. Most of them had been with another senior tour guide, but lately she had done a few solo day-tours too. The second year had ended, and she was currently back to working full-time for the holiday period.

As she spoke about her ongoing education and part-time work, Jaiprakashji listened to her with growing warmth and admiration.

Sameer still had the book open in his lap but was listening in on bits of their conversation. Of course, for him a university student working part-time was nothing special. It was extremely common where he came from. All he deduced was she must be about twenty or so... a couple of years younger to him.

But he didn't miss the warm regard in his Nanaji's eyes for her. This was so different to how Nanaji had responded to Isabella the year before.

* * *

Nanaji would usually visit Vishakha's family in London every year during the English summer for a month or so.  During his last trip, Sameer had introduced him to his girlfriend Isabella.

Sameer and Isabella had been known each other for a few years through to some common friends but had started dating when they found themselves pursuing their masters in the same college.

Isabella had the overall countenance of a nerd, quite committed to her education and plans for joining her father's business back in Spain. But she had a fun side too. Sameer had enjoyed her witty comebacks and observations about people around them. She had been good company to head to the movies or concerts with. And the sex had been fine too. Maybe not earth shattering or out of the world types... but it had been perfectly adequate.

They had been dating for a year, and she had seemed excited at the idea of meeting his grandfather.

It had been a fairly hot day, as per the British, when he had planned to introduce her to his grandfather. Nanaji accompanied him to Regents Park where they were to meet Isabella. They had been walking along the pond, watching the platoon of kids chuck pieces of bread for the ducks and geese, when she arrived.

She had made a special effort for the occasion and was dressed in a lovely cornflower blue sundress. She had worn more makeup than she usually did and straightened her otherwise naturally wavy light brown hair.

But his Nanaji had not warmed up to her. Sameer could tell from the way he tried to keep his gaze away from Isabella, that he did not approve of her mid-thigh length dress. Nor did he approve of the familiarity with which she touched Sameer in front of him. Nanaji was polite to her but did not engage in much conversation with her. They spent less than an hour together before Nanaji excused himself claiming he had plans to meet some friends.

When Sameer later tried to ask him about his impression of Isabella, Nanaji had been fairly tight-lipped. And so, Sameer dropped the topic.

There had also been some argument between Nanaji and his mother about Deepika being allowed too much freedom.  Deepika had turned sixteen and had started spending a lot of time hanging out with her friends, some of whom were non-Indians. Nanaji was unsettled by the overall behaviour of that bunch of teenagers. The prospect of his teenage granddaughter staring to date anytime soon, did not sit well with him. He felt that Vishakha and Vivek were not handling the kids appropriately.  Vishakha tried to reason that they lived outside India and things were different there. But her father only felt let down.