Home.

"How much for a mozham?" He enquires, hurriedly glancing at his watch. He is in no mood to haggle. He carefully places the torn leaf tied with malligai poo in his front pocket and starts his vespa.

She is lost in her thoughts. She thoughtfully and methodically twines and smoothens out the end of her soft cotten saree.
"Appa eppo ma vitku varuva?", the child asks, stressing on the vitku, she is picking up new words quickly and delights in repeating each new word that captures her fancy, incorrectly but with child-like finality.

She checks the time on her daughter's fancy watch and frowns that it is two minutes past five-thirty and he is yet to come. Every extra second weighs heavily on her. She cannot wait to share her day's stories, about Pankajam mami and her daughter's marriage to a Punjabi, about the VishnuSahasranamam classes that she is planning to take at the temple and how the karigaikaran had charged her Rs.5 more than he had charged Susheela mami.
"I will teach that karigaikaran a lesson" She thinks. "I will not buy vegetables from him, serves him right..." She imagines his shrew of a wife wielding her ladle threateningly in front of his nose demanding that he appease her and get her to buy vegetables from him again and laughs at her silly imagination.

He deftly drives around the many potholes on the road and maneuvers his vehicle into the small lane where his house stands. He glances at a distance to watch his wife who stands demurely at the gate, anxiously waiting for him to return from the office. By her side, tightly holding her hand and half hidden in her saree, stands his fidgeting daughter, as eagerly awaiting his return as her mother. They paint a beautiful picture, mother and daughter. For a few moments, he cannot not take his eyes off them.

*****

"Talaipu Seidigal", Shobana Ravi intones from the small black and white TV. He listens with interest for sometime before turning his attention back to the Hindu supplements.
"Buy your flat in Velachery now", the full-page color advertisement screams at him. He distractedly pats his daughter's head, while nodding to her unending stories.
"Appa, shikanth is my best frind, patti says he is a good boy..." she gestures excitedly and her words go unnoticed. He looks thoughtfully at the chipping white paint on the walls and the rhythmic pitter of raindrops leaking from the verandah roof. An expression of fleeting pain crosses his face as he watches his wife coughing in the fumes in her tiny cell of a kitchen.

She looks at him and smiles, though her eyes sting with the fumes.
"Innum anju nimisham", she mouths and lifts the vessel from the stove.
He cannot take his eyes away from the pale, thin hands and the few glass bangles that adorn it. "Hands that need to be bejwelled in filigree...", he is surprised by how much ache love carries with it.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

"Should be home in 5, love you, bye", she presses the button under her steering wheel to open the moon-roof on her acura 3.2 TL and takes the exit to her town house. The fluorescent numbers on her navigation system show 6:45 EST.
"I cannot for the life of me figure out how that bug creeped in, must be that Meredith's fault, silly woman...", she shakes her head to clear it off bits and bytes.

Through the white brocade curtains, she could see two shadows in a blur, running after one another. Smiling, she dug into her purse to fish out her keys.

"Mommmy!", her chubby, effervescent daughter rushes to hug her.
She hugs her and enquires in a mock-baby voice "Has my baby been a good girl today? Did she trouble daddy?"
The child giggles and shakes her head shyly but emphatically. She herself cannot help grinning at her husband, the polka-dotted apron that he sports looks silly over his tshirt and jeans.
"Hot samosas ready", he declares with a flourish, little revealing that all he did was defrost the frozen samosas that he had purchased from the local Indian store.
They sit down to eat and the child plays around with the food, and soon has food bits strewn all around her frock and her plate.
"Chellam, now if patti thatha come to visit us from Madras, they won't like this, will they?" She asks the child.

The child stares back at her blankly.

Inexplicably, tears well in her eyes. "My own daughter does not know her grandparents...they are strangers to her, the very people that she should be running to now for every little thing...the very people who would do anything to play for a moment with her....and I blame myself..."
He understands. He places a comforting hand over hers and looks around, trying to hide his own emotions threatening to overwhelm him...his eyes touch upon the high ceilings, the delicate crown mouldings in the kitchen, the glittering chandelier, the flat screen TV and not a single sight gives him the peace of mind that his little home in India could give him. He looks up, helplessly, as if the heavens might grace them with an answer

***
Translating key words:
Appa - Father
Karigaikaran - Vegetable vendor
Chellam - Term of endearment
patti - grand mother
thatha - grand father