chapter III

“You really have changed a lot, Paramseva Da,” Mini tells me, using my Sanskrit name along with "Da" - short for Dada, or “elder brother.”

“You’re not the same person you were when I first met you fifteen years ago.”

Mini lives one flight down from our Calcutta flat. She and her parents are great neighbors. We have just arrived in Calcutta and they have arranged maids to clean the apartment and had lunch waiting for us when we arrived. Mini and her mother both have garrulous natures and are well-known figures in our neighborhood.

Now taking time to talk with us in our flat, Mini has much to tell me. We discuss my plans for the future and the possibility of our respective marriages. Still, Mini is preoccupied with her psychoanalysis of me.

“You have almost become like our Bengali boys, not at all like other Americans,” she squints her eyes and looks at me askance; “But something is still missing.” Holding her chin, she ponders for a long moment.

“Hmmm…”

She is taking her time figuring it out and I hardly know what to do as she stares into my eyes.

“Do you cry?”

I tell her that yes, I do cry, but neglect to mention that I had done so only yesterday.

Again Mini ponders, looking at me inquisitively. Suddenly her eyes light up and I know she has found it; “But do you cry in front of others?” she asks knowingly.

“No,” I concede.

“Aha, there it is!”

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chapter IV