Recap: Aparna and Raahi sincerely hope that Seher will come out of her shell, thanks to Saahil, but her sister Zaara is yet to be convinced.

Perhaps this wasn’t a premature examination of wedding jewellery after all, Raahi thought to herself, smiling. After just two weeks of being in the same house as Saahil, Seher had grown more confident, more alive, more like a version of herself that sparkled with quiet security instead of cowering into the shadows. At breakfast, she seemed to be at ease with the day instead of mistrustful of it. And last night at dinner she had even spoken her mind, not afraid of offending anyone for once.

It had been a glorious triumph for Raahi to watch her otherwise reticent daughter ask for the first paratha because she was starving, instead of waiting for everyone else to be served first. The Pandit in her was finally beginning to show, all thanks to Saahil’s company.

Could this be it? Could her daughter finally be forced to come into her own?

“Maybe they just need some more... time together”, Raahi proposed, daring to hope.

Aparna’s eyes glinted in understanding.

“I suppose it’s a blessing in disguise that the plumbing of your house isn’t finished yet.”

“But it is,” Zaara sat up, confused, one ruby in, one off. “The manager of the building said we could move in tomorrow if we liked.”

“He’s mistaken. Isn’t he?” Aparna smiled with such delight that the diamonds strung around her neck paled in comparison.

Raahi hesitated. Shockingly cordial though their last two weeks had been, another week of being beholden to Maahir’s generous wife was as torturous a thought to Raahi as imprisonment is to a convict who thought she was a day away from release.

But for Seher’s sake, she swallowed the refusal that automatically sprung to her lips. It was the first time that her quiet daughter had been, even close to, being properly in love.

“Yes he’s mistaken,” Raahi said, forcing her face into a grateful smile. “The new bathtub will take at least a week to install.”

Zaara’s eyes widened in understanding and then narrowed in disapproval. Her pink lips parted to protest.

“Not a word of this to your sister,” Aparna cut her off. “If you care about Seher, you’ll allow this experiment.”

Zaara jutted out her chin, eyes afire for a moment. But then under the forceful gaze of her fond aunt, she sighed, and dropped back on the bed muttering, something about this much trouble for Saahil?!

Her mother, however, smiled and flipped open the steel lock of the royal blue box in her hand, lifting the velvet lid with a gentle caress. Gazing fondly at the clear pearls that shone softly in the morning sunlight, she decided not to give up on her soft-spoken daughter just yet.

***

At 7:02pm

Saahil: Did you hear the good news?

Seher: Why are you texting me from the study?

Saahil: On an interminably boring Zoom call with the Pater Pratap Singh.

Seher: Won’t he notice that you’re typing?

Saahil: Nah he’s barely looking at me. He’s admiring himself in his thumbnail window of the Zoom screen.

Seher: To be fair, he isn’t a bad-looking gentleman

Saahil: Thanks, I got his genes.

Seher: You wish.

Saahil: Ouch!

Anyway, I’d only be caught for typing if Ma was also on call but she’s doing the whole silent treatment thing atm

Seher: How come?

Saahil: She’s punishing me for moving in with Aparna maasi. And then I guess she’s also going berserk about the fact that you guys are staying here for another week.

Seher: Oh.

Saahil: ...which btw is the GOOD NEWS I was talking about.

Seher: Not according to the Pratap Singhs, clearly.

Saahil: It doesn’t matter S. Aparna maasi’s clearly over everything that happened. Mom needs to get over it too.

Seher: Do you think she will?

Saahil: Doesn’t matter. All I have to do is nod along, hmm and mmm while they rant about respectability and social codes and then it’s all done.

Seher: Wait. They’re ranting…. about us?

Saahil: Us?

Seher: As in, about mum and Zaara and I?

About our… lack of respectability?

Saahil: Okay listen

They rant about everyone.

Including me.

Don’t give it any importance. I don’t.

Seher: Okay but are they ranting about us to anyone other than you?

Saahil: I don’t know. I don’t think so.

Seher: Saahil, this is important. We live in Bombay now and your parents are very influential people. If they’re speaking badly about my mum and I, it’s, well it’s not ideal. It’s quite harmful actually, since we’re trying really hard to start over.

Saahil: I hear you but you know how close-minded my parents are. They’re super set in their ways.

Once they form an opinion there’s no changing it.

Seher: Do they have to impose their opinions on their friends though?

Saahil: Why do you care what my parents’ friends think of you guys?

Seher: I don’t want my family to be maligned. Is that too much to ask?

Saahil: No of course not. But there’s not much I can do about it, is there?

Seher: I don’t know. You could stand up for me? Maybe tell them not to speak badly about your friend and her family?

Saahil: S, I’m not opening that can of worms with them.

Seher: What can of worms?

Saahil: Look, your parents’ situation is none of my business.

Seher: You’re right. It isn’t.

Saahil: And I don’t want to fight with my parents any more.

We’ve just gotten on a Zoom call and once-a-week-lunch terms with each other after I told them I’m moving out and becoming a web designer instead of joining the family business.

It’s taken us a solid five years to get here.

I really don’t want to go back to being in that weird space of firing shots at each other all the time again. Or worse, cutting off all communication.

Seher: Alright.

Saahil: Do you get it?

Seher: Nope.

Saahil: Ah f**k it, I’m coming up.

10:53pm.

Seher: You left your book in my room.

Saahil: That’s for you.

It’s the only Tolstoy worth reading.

But I’d like my bookmark back tomorrow, thanks.

Curious, Seher lifted the large copy of War and Peace to examine the bookmark. It was nothing special. Just an ordinary red rectangle advertising Axis Bank’s many money-making schemes.

But as she lifted it, she saw the bright yellow of highlighted text winking at her off the page, refusing to take no for an answer, demanding to be read. It was the end of someone’s speech on page 92.

“Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of an intelligent woman.”

At 10: 56 pm

Seher: You’re good.

Saahil: I try.

Seher: Bookmark’s mine now.

Saahil: Yep

(To be continued)

This is the 12th episode of Riva Razdan’s serialised novel Nonsense and Respectability, published every Sunday

Riva Razdan is a New York University graduate and currently working as a screenwriter and author based in Mumbai. Her debut novel Arzu was published by Hachette India in 2021