Recap: As the romance between Seher and Saahil begins to look like courtship, Aparna’s sister Sangeeta tells Bhatia to find a way to free Aparna from the Pandits.

“What did she say?”

A resigned shake of the pretty head. And then to emphasise the point.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing!”

Raahi smiled at Aparna’s exasperation. She knew it all too well.

But even after two weeks of living with Seher, Aparna wasn’t able to believe the young girl’s ability to keep her matters private. Anyone could see that she and Saahil were giddy with each other. So why not just come out with it? Aparna was itching to call her imperious sister up and inform her that her only son was in love. And with a girl she recommended very highly.

Not that Aparna’s recommendation counted for much these days with Sangeeta, who treated her as though she was quite deranged ever since that incident at hers and Jai’s thirtieth wedding anniversary dinner at the Oberoi....

It had been the bartender’s fault, in Aparna’s opinion, for frothing the coffee with such great dollops of cream, caffeine and sugar that she didn’t notice the generous measures of whiskey in her countless little cups. Really, the servers should have mentioned that the coffee was Irish.

But it had been six months since Aparna had got up and sang We Wish You A Merry Christmas before the Pratap Singhs’ 200 esteemed guests. And more importantly, it had been 13 days since she had a single drink. After a decade of trying in vain, she had finally managed to abstain.

And it was all due to the Pandits.

With helping Seher hunt for a job during the day and supervising the cooking of Zaara’s vegan recipes at night, Aparna simply didn’t have a moment to spend in her room amongst haunting thoughts and consolatory bottles.

The Pandits had protested at first, worried that they were imposing far beyond what they had intended, but Aparna had assured them that she was dying to be imposed upon; to be useful to someone for a change. Azaan was so self-sufficient that he found her mother-ing smothering, but Seher and Zaara... well, they seemed to revel in it. Especially since their own mother was busy at their new house every day, trying to furnish it into a fine home on a tight budget.

And so, slowly but surely Aparna became a second mum to two very grateful girls. And their actual mother tried not to mind too much. Azaan, fortunately, had been too distracted by work to mind. Aparna hoped that when he did finally pay attention, he would notice the welcome change in his mother first and decide to tolerate the Pandits’ for her sake. Even though the girls were due to move out and into their own home the next day, Aparna was eager to continue their friendship.Their good-natured company had done wonders for her health.

For the first time in years, Aparna’s face was fresh and her mind was clear. Her sister was bound to see her with fresh eyes too now. And so Aparna felt confident in assuring Raahi that although Saahil’s parents were a little... businesslike, she would ensure that the meeting between the families was smooth, warm and successful.

Raahi, however, knew that Aparna had overshot the mark by very many light years. If Seher had said Nothing, then Nothing was going to happen. Her daughter simply wouldn’t allow it.

Still, a mother’s heart couldn’t help but hope.

“Have they decided between themselves at least?” Raahi asked, “Do they like each other?

“She refused to talk about it.” And with a resigned shake of her head, Zaara fell back on Aparna’s bed, disturbing the many glittering necklaces laid out in boxes of blue velvet on her duvet.

“Well at least it isn’t an outright denial,” Aparna pointed out. “That means something!”

“It means nothing.” Raahi shook her head, shutting the box that protected her pearl choker with a woeful snap. How many times in the last eight years had she taken out this lovely necklace, bought especially for her daughter’s wedding, gazed at it longingly and then locked it back in the cupboard?

“Don’t pressure her Ma,” Zaara said, hooking a pair of ruby earrings into her lobes. “It’s alright if she doesn’t want to get married.”

“I’m the one who told you it’s alright pup.” Raahi chuckled. “I don’t care whether or not she gets married. But I’m tired of seeing her turn away from men.”

“She isn’t…?” Aparna blushed, unable to complete the sentence.

Zaara laughed, in surprise, and shook her head.

“No,” Raahi confirmed. “I’ve asked. I’ve even had her therapist ask. To be honest, I wouldn’t even mind that. So long as she had some sort of partner.”

Raahi feared that although Seher appeared self-possessed and graceful, she still carried within her the humiliation of being branded a ‘bastard’ child by Azaan. Despite her years of therapy and all her accomplishments, she still felt too threatened by men to let one linger long enough for a relationship to form.

“But I’m sure she has had boyfriends before this?”

“Not anyone I’ve been introduced to,” Raahi said, with a sigh. “Zaara’s bumped into a few of them but she’s been sworn to secrecy.”

Zaara shrugged non-committally.

“Tell us something about them,” Aparna urged.

“They were all incidental,” Zaara said with a wave of her hand. “She didn’t think they were important enough to introduce to Ma. And she’s right, they weren’t.”

“I’d still like the name of a past boyfriend. Or a picture at least. And there’s nothing on social media either. I’ve stalked the girl like a hawk. At one point I even considered hiring a PI to find out details.”

“There’s nothing to find out. Trust me, I’ve read her diaries.”

Aparna’s mouth fell into a scandalised ‘O’. Raahi bit back a smile and turned to her wilful daughter.

“I’m not surprised she hasn’t mentioned any details in her diary. She knows you read them.”

Aparna’s mouth fell further, into a scandalised ‘U’ now. Zaara huffed, indignant at having her knowledge questioned.

“Ma you don’t understand, she’s probably spent more time with Saahil in the last two weeks than she did with each of those guys, total.”

Raahi’s eyes brightened in surprise. She sat up straighter, alert now.

“Really?”

Zaara pressed her lips together, hoping she hadn’t let anything important slip. It was one thing to peruse her sister’s diaries like it was light bedtime reading, but wholly another to report the specifics of the material to her mother.

“Well that sounds promising doesn’t it?” Aparna asked, tentatively, not sure what the rules were, but always happy to participate in the Pandits’ ponderings.

“Very promising!” Raahi said. She turned to Zaara, hungrily. “What was it like with the others? How was it different?”

Zaara considered the matter thoroughly. How much could she reveal to her concerned mother and aunt without infringing on Seher’s privacy?

“Well, let’s put it like this,” she measured her words carefully for a change, “even in college, Seher never let any of them hold her hand in public. Nor did she introduce them to her friends. Or let them sit on her bed and eat Oreos like she does with Saahil, even though he gets crumbs literally everywhere.”

“So she never let them into her room?” Raahi was surprised by this. Her daughter was more old-fashioned than she had imagined. Or, perhaps, Raahi realised with an unpleasant twinge, she was just trying to be the complete opposite of her mother.

“Not her room, nor her life, really,” Zaara said, wrinkling her nose. “Advance damage control.”

“Oh,” Aparna exhaled.

Raahi ignored the knot of guilt that tightened itself in her stomach. There was no right way to live or love, she reminded herself. There is only the way that presents itself. Raahi had leapt at the treasure of feeling presented to her by Maahir. Now Seher was being presented with a great wealth of affection herself. She hoped that her daughter wouldn’t tip-toe away from it in fear, like she usually did.

“Maybe it’s different this time” Raahi challenged. “Saahil is allowed in her room and he’s met her family.”

“Because they’re friends Ma,” Zaara said with a shake of her head. “I’m sure if she had felt any actual attraction to him, she would have shut him out. There really must be nothing there.”

Raahi refused to believe this. She knew from her daughter’s reluctant smile, from the playful sparkle in her otherwise stormy eyes, from the way her gaze lingered on Saahil every time he entered the dining room, that she most certainly wasn’t just his friend.

This would be the point in the courtship that Seher, feeling most vulnerable, would stop calling back, block him on WhatsApp and escape London to see her friends from school in Kent.

Raahi laughed, suddenly, as she realised that Saahil must have been one of the friends in Kent on one of Seher’s many escapes over the years. If he had only moved back to Bombay five years ago, there must surely have been some overlap. Perhaps he had even been a sweater’ed shoulder to shed a tear on. A friendly face to share a warm bowl of cinnamon oatmeal with in the morning, as she recovered from the heartbreak of turning yet another lover into a stranger.

But now Seher had nowhere to escape to. She had to stay in this house, with the nephew of the owner and tolerate his advances and her own answering affection.

Well, for another day at least.

(To be continued)

(This is the 11th 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