Roopa was startled, only to be relieved.
“Don’t you think they’re smart?” he asked her, throwing her into a dilemma whether to sound him about Chandrika or let events unfold for themselves.
“Is anything wrong with that?” he said before she could make up her mind.
“It’s not a bad idea,” she merely said.
“Sandhya seems to be very close to you,” he changed the topic to interest her.
“We’re childhood pals turned adult mates,” she said mystically, and he didn’t fail to notice the glow in her face.
“No friends like childhood friends,” he said nostalgically.
“Tell me about your childhood days,” she asked.
Then he went on narrating his childhood life and times at Guntur for long and added, “If not for my father’s transfer to Kakinada last year, perhaps, we wouldn’t have come across your match at all. That’s destiny at work, I suppose.”
As he became engrossed with his childhood escapades, she tried to be an enthusiastic listener, and having heard him speak highly of his friend, she asked him, “Are you in touch with your Prasad now?”
“Sadly we’re out of touch,” he said with a sense of loss. “But I’ve heard that he’s in Delhi, married to a millionaire’s daughter. Some industrialist seems to have lured him for his plain daughter by dangling a stake in the business empire. Surely he would have turned into a really handsome man. I have no doubt about that.”
“Was he ambitious?” she enquired as though she were comparing notes.
“Don’t you think it’s difficult to know one’s nature so early on in life?” he said like someone who didn’t apply his mind from that angle. “But one of our schoolteachers used to say that the character of a person would be known only after marriage. For all I know, he wasn’t good at studies. It’s I who used to help him with his lessons, maths in particular. However, he was the handsomest in the class and boisterous as well.”
When she proposed dinner, he changed into his lungi.
“I may end up being obese in due course,” he said as he helped himself liberally with the food she served him.
“It’s my mother’s preparation,” she said with a morsel in her mouth.
“You would find me doing justice to your recipes too.”
“Let’s see what’s in store for you,” she said, managing a smile.
‘If not Sauvé, he’s by no means naive,’ she reviewed her situation as she went to wash the plates. ‘Above all else, he seems to love me genuinely.’ The conviction that he loved her gave her some consolation. She instinctively knew that life wouldn’t be problematic with him, and the thought satisfied her.