I continued, *National anthem, national currency, national teams a we won't marry our children outside our state. How can this intolerance be good for our country?'

Ananya smiled. *Is it the chicken, is it the beer or is it the sex? What has charged you up so much? Flatter me and say it is the sex. C'mon say it,' she said.

*I'm serious Ananya. This bullshit must end.'

*And how are we making it end?'

*Imagine our kids.'

*I have, several times. I want them to have my face. Only your eyes,' she said.

*Not that, think about this a they won't be Tamil or Punjabi. They will be Indian.

They will be above all this nonsense. If all young people marry outside their community, it is good for the country. That is the greater purpose.'

*Oh, so the reason you sleep with me is for the sake of your country,' she said.

*Well, in some ways, yes.' I smiled sheepishly.

She took a pillow and launched an attack on my head. And then, for the sake of my country, we made love again.

*Open up, Krish,' Ramanujan's worried voice and loud bangs on the door woke me from my nap.

19.

Ananya was sleeping next to me and my head hurt from the beer. Ramanujan continued to slam the door.

*What?' I opened the door.

*I've been knocking for five minutes,' Ramanujan said. *Come out, the landlord is here.'

*Landlord?'

*Yes, be nice to him. It's the last chummery in Nungambakkam. I don't want to be kicked out.'

*What happened?' I asked.

*Come out first.'

I shut the door and wore the rest of my clothes.

*Ananya,' I said.

*Baby, I'm sleepy,' she said, trying to pull me back into bed.

*My landlord is here,' I said. She didn't respond even though I shook her maniacally.

*Your appa is outside,' I said.

She sprang up on the bed. *What?'

*Come out. My landlord is here,' I said.

I went to the living room. My flatmates sat on the dining table. Mr Punnu, our sixty-year old landlord, gravely occupied the largest chair. His face had a permanently tragic expression.

I sat next to him. No one spoke.

*Hi guys,' Ananya came out after five minutes. *You want tea? I'll make some.'

She started to walk towards the kitchen.

*Ananya, I will see you later,' I said.

Ananya looked at me, shocked. She tuned into the mood on the dining table.

*I'll leave now.' She picked up her bag.

Mr Punnu stood up after Ananya left the house. He sniffed hard. He peeped into my room. *Chicken?' he frowned.

I didn't respond. Beer bottles lay on the bedside table.

*Ladies?' he said.

*She works in HLL,' I said, having no clue why I had to mention her corporate status.

*Chicken, beer, lady friends a what is going on here?' he said.

Fun, I wanted to say but didn't. Those three things are what men live for anyway.

Everyone kept quiet. I wondered who had sneaked. My flatmates were no friend material, but somehow I didn't expect them to be suck schmucks. Maybe the watchman did it.

*I didn't expect this from you boys,' Punnu said in a heavy Tamil accent.

*It's my fault. I brought the chicken and beer for my girlfriend,' I said.

*Girlfriend?' Punnu said as if I spoke in pure Sanskrit.

*She is my batch-mate. A nice girl,' I said.

Mr Punnu didn't seem impressed.

*She's Tamil Brahmin,' I said.

*And you?'

*Punjabi,' I said and my head hung low a little by default.

*How is she a nice girl if she is roaming around with you?' Mr Punnu asked.

He had a valid point. I decided to change the topic. *Mr Punnu, this is not a boarding school. We are all professionals and what we do in our own home...'

Mr Punnu banged his fist on the table. *This is my home,' he pointed out.

*Yes, but you have leased it to us. Technically, we have a right to not let you into the property.'

Mr Punnu looked aghast. Ramanujan had to save the situation. *He doesn't know, Mr Punnu. He is new here. We should have told him it is a veg building and no alcohol.'

*Not even a drop,' Mr Punnu said. "I have not touched it all my life.'

Mr Punnu looked like he had touched neither wine nor a woman all his life, but badly needed to.

*Apologise,' Ramanujan told me.

I glanced around. Tamils gathered around me like the LTTE. I had no choice.

*I'm sorry,' I said.

*No ladies from now on.' Mr Punnu wagged a finger.

*And beer and chicken?' I said.

"That wasn't allowed from before anyway,' Sendil said. Everyone around me nodded as they felt the warm fuzzy feeling of having set rules on how to live their life.

I wondered where I'd take Ananya the next time.

20.

*I am good at chemistry. I need help in physics,' Manjunath, nerd-embryo and Ananya's younger brother, spoke with eh energy of a rooster. His eyebrows went up and down as he spoke, in sync with the three rows of ash on his forehead.

I had come for my first class. Ananya had left for Madurai the night before for a weeklong sales trip. My head hurt from waking up early. Ananya's mother had sent coffee to Manju's room. It didn't help.

Neither did the fact that I had only read up chemistry.

"let's revise it anyways,' I said and opened my sheets.

*Hydrocarbons?' he said as he saw my notes. *I've done this thee times.'

I offered him a problem and he solved it in two minutes. I tried a harder one, and he did it in the same time. A tape played in the next room. It sounded like a chorus of women marching towards the army.

*M.S. Subbulaxmi,' Manju said, noticing my worried expression. *Devotional music.'

I nodded as I flipped through the chemistry books to find a problem challenging enough for the little Einstein.

*Every Tamilian house plays it in the morning.'

I wondered if Ananya would play it in our house after we got married. My mother would have serious trauma with that sound. The chants became stronger with every passing minute.

*What is IIT like?' he asked.

I told him about my former college, filtering out all the spicy bits that occurred in my life.

*I want to do aeronautics,' Manju said. At his age, I didn't even know that word.

He took out his physics textbook after an hour. He gave me a problem and I asked for time to solve it. He nodded and read the next chapter. The tutor was being tutored.

I passed the rest of the hour learning physics from Manju. I stood up to leave. I reached the living room where Ananya's dad was making slow love to The Hindu.

Ananya had instructed me to spend as much time with her father as possible. I waited for ten minutes until he finished his article.

*Yes?'

*Nothing,' I said. *I finished the class.'

*Good,' he said and flipped another page.

*How's the bank, uncle?'

He glanced up from the newspaper, surprised. *Which bank?'

*Your bank.' I cleared my throat. *How is your job?'

*What?' he said, stumped by the stupidity of the question. *What is there in job? Job is same.'

*Yes, sure,' I said.