*Sort of?' I said, my voice loud. *I am not Mr Sort Of. I am The Guy.'

*Yeah, but I can't tell him exactly. How would he feel? My boyfriend sat with me when he came to see me.'

*Imagine how I felt. Anyway, what did you tell him?'

*He asked me, rather hinted, about my virginity.'

*He did not! I will kill that bastard,' I said, my face red.

Ananya laughed. *Jealousy is rather enjoyable emotion to watch,' she observed.

*Funny.'

*He just said ... wait let me remember. Yes, he said, are you still pure or something,' she giggled.

*What a loser. What is he looking for a ghee?' I asked.

Ananya laughed uncontrollably. She held her stomach as she spoke. *Wait, you'll die if I told you my response.'

*And that is?'

*I told him a Harish, if there is an entrance exam for virginity, you can be sure I won't top it,' Ananya said.

*You did not! And then?'

*And then the Cisco guy hung up the phone. No more Harish, finite. Radha aunty said now Harish also doesn't like me. Yipee!'

The waiter brought us our drinks. The contents looked like water after you've dipped several paintbrushes in it. The jamun tea tasted different, though different doesn't translate into nice. Amethyst is about ambience, not nourishment.

*Ananya, we need to bring this to closure. I'm not getting traction with your parents. Manju maybe, but others barely acknowledge me.'

*You will. In fact, that's why I called you here today. You have a chance to score with dad.'

*I can't. I told you he folded his hands at me.'

*He is dying doing his presentation. No one in Bank of Baroda has ever made a business plan. He doesn't know computers. It is crazy.'

*I offered help. He said no.'

*He won't say no now. I could help him but I am travelling most of the time.

And if you help him, it may work.'

*May, the key word is may. Can be replaced just as easily withmay not,' I said.

*Try,' Ananya said and placed her hands on mine. It was probably the only restaurant in Chennai she would try such a stunt. Here, it looked sort of OK.

*First your brother, then your father. If nothing else, I'll be your family tutor,' I said as I sipped the last few drops of my tea.

*And my lover,' Ananya winked.

*Thanks. And what about your mother? How can I make her cry in happiness like the purity-seeking Harish?'

Ananya threw up her hands. *Don't ask me about mom,' she said. *One, she gives me a guilt trip about Harish everyday. And two, Chennai has put her in her place about her Carnatic music abilities. She has stopped singing altogether. And that makes her even more miserable, which creates her own self-guilt trip, which is then transferred to me and the cycle continues. Even I can't help her with this.

Work on dad for now.'

I nodded as Ananya paused to catch her breath.

*Thanks for bearing this,' she said and fed me a scone dipped in cream. I licked cream off her fingers. Little things like these kept me going.

*Easy, this is a public place,' she said.

She pulled her hand back as the waiter arrived with the bill. I paid and left him a tip bigger than my daily lunch budget.

*Hey, you want to go dancing?' she asked.

*Dancing? You have an eight o'clock curfew. How can we go dancing?'

*Because in Chennai we go dancing in the afternoon. Let's go, Sheraton has a nice DJ.'

*At three in the afternoon?'

*Yes, everybody goes. They banned nightclubs, so we have afternoon clubs.'

We took an auto to the Sheraton. I am not kidding, a hundred youngsters in party clothes waited outside in the sunny courtyard. The disco opened in ten minutes. Everyone went inside and the lights were switched off. The bar started business. The DJ put on the latest Rajni Tamil track. The crowd went crazy as everyone apart from me registered the song.

Ananya moved her body to the music. She danced extremely well, as did most others trained in Bharatnatyam while growing up.

*Naan onnai kadalikaren,' she said *I love you' in Tamil. I took her in my arms.

I looked around at the youngsters, doing what they loved despite everyone from their parents to the government banning them from doing so.

Yes, if there can be afternoon discos, Punjabis can marry Tamilians. Rules, after all, are only made so you can work around them.

*Uncle, Ananya told me you are having trouble with your business plan.'

Uncle braked his car in shock. We never spoke in the Fiat. We had a ritual. I read my reports, he cursed the traffic and the city roads. In twenty minutes, we reached the traffic signal near the Citibank where he dropped me. I thanked him, he nodded, all without eye contact. Today, one week after my Amethyst date, I had made my move. Ananya had gone to Thanjavur on work for five days, and her mother joined her on the trip to see the temples. Ananya had told me it would be the perfect time to offer help. Her father wouldn't suspect I wanted to come home for Ananya. Plus, more important, he could actually take help from me I looked around at the youngsters, doing what they loved despite everyone from their parents to the government banning them from doing so.

Yes, if there can be afternoon discos, Punjabis can marry Tamilians. Rules, after all, are only made so you can work around them.

*Uncle, Ananya told me you are having trouble with your business plan.'

Uncle braked his car in shock. We never spoke in the Fiat. We had a ritual. I read my reports, he cursed the traffic and the city roads. In twenty minutes, we reached the traffic signal near the Citibank where he dropped me. I thanked him, he nodded, all without eye contact. Today, one week after my Amethyst date, I had made my move. Ananya had gone to Thanjavur on work for five days, and her mother joined her on the trip to see the temples. Ananya had told me it would be the perfect time to offer help. Her father wouldn't suspect I wanted to come home for Ananya. Plus, more important, he could actually take help from me and keep face as his wife and daughter won't be there to witness.

*Why is she telling you all this?' His hands clenched on the steering wheel.

*Actually, I had helped my boss make a business plan,' I lied.

*Really?' His expression softened and he looked at me.

*MNC banks make presentations all the time,' I said.

Uncle released the brake as the car moved again.

*Do you want me to sit down with you?' I offered as we reached closer to the Citibank signal.

*You take tuitions for Manju already. Why are you helping us so much?'

I thought hard for an answer. *I don't have anyone in Chennai. No old friends, no family,' I said.

His eyebrows went up at the last word.

*Of course, you are also not family,' I said and his face relaxed again. *But it is nice to go to a home.'

I had reached my signal. I opened the door slowly, to allow him time to respond.

*If you have time, come in the evening. I will show you what I have done.'

*Oh, OK, I will come tonight,' I said as uncle drove off. The Fiat left behind a fresh waft of carbon monoxide.

26.

*I think it is a great idea,' Bala said. We sat in our priority banking group team meeting. Mumbai had proposed a *raise spirits' dinner event for our private clients across India. Despite the economic slowdown, they had approved, they had approved a budget for all major centres. Chennai needed it most, given the adventure banking we had subjected our clients to.

*So, we need to brainstorm on which event will work best for Chennai customers,' Bala said.

*An art exhibition,' one executive said.

*Again, we are selling something,' another executive said. *The focus should be on fun.'

*A fashion show,' said the earlier executive.

*Too bold for our market,' came the counter response.

The discussion continued for ten minutes. All ideas form movie-night to inventing a Kollywood celebrity to calling a chef to prepare an exotic cuisine were discussed.

However, for some reason, none of the ideas clicked. I felt quite useless having nothing to say. But I didn't know what would work for Chennai customers apart from giving them their money back.

*Krish, what do you think?' Bala asked, breaking my daydream of walking hand-in-hand with Ananya in a peacock blue sari.

*Huh?' I said, and realised everyone had turned to me.

*Would you like to contribute?' Bala said. Even though he had cut me slack, on occasion the repressed boss in him came out.

*Music, how about music? Say a musical night?' I suggested.

Excited murmurs ran across the room. Finally, we had an idea without any strong negative objection. However, within music there were a dozen ideas.

*Kutcheri, let's do a kutcheri,' said one.

*What's that?' I said, turning to Saraswati.

Saraswati was a conservative Tamilian agent who spoke only once a year and never waxed her arms. (I admit the latter point is irrelevant but it is hard not to notice these things.) *Kutcheri is a Carnatic music concert,' Saraswati made her point and drifted back to being part of the wall.

*Hey, I thought we wanted the evening to be fun,' I said.

*Carnatic music can be fun,' said Ravi, another supervisor.

Yes, as much fun as wailing babies in a crowded train, I wanted to say but didn't. Political correctness is a necessity in Chennai, especially when everyone hates you for being an outsider anyway.

I turned to Bala. *We want to raise spirits. Isn't Carnatic music too serious?

Why not have an evening of popular music. Good popular music.'

*A.R. Rahman, can we get A.R. Rahman?' said one person.

*Or Ilaiyaraja,' said another.

Bala shook his head and waved his arms to say *no'. *We can't do such big names. The budget is not that high. And these people attract the press. Last thing you want is some customer telling the press about their losses and us wasting money on such concerts. Mumbai will kill me.'

After two hours of further deliberation that took us to lunch break, we made a few decisions about the event. The concert would be held in Fisherman's Cove, an upmarket resort on the city outskirts. We'd have three to five singers of reasonable fame, provided we kept to the budget of two lakh.

*All set then,' Bala said as we ended the meeting at six in the evening. I realised I had to leave. After all, I had a big date with the big daddy tonight.