'Savita, Savita - the baby kicked me!' said Pran excitedly, shaking his wife's shoulder.

Savita opened a reluctant eye, felt Fran's lanky and comforting body near her, and smiled in the dark, before sinking back to sleep.

'Are you awake ?' asked Pran.

417'Uh,' said Savita. 'Mm.'

'But it really did!' said Pran, unhappy with her lack of response.

'What did ?' said Savita sleepily.

'The baby.'

'What baby ?'

'Our baby.'

'Our baby did what ?'

'It kicked me.'

Savita sat up carefully and kissed Fran's forehead, rather as if he were a baby himself. 'It couldn't have. You're dreaming. Go back to sleep. And I'll also go back to sleep. And so will the baby.'

'It did,' said Pran, a little indignantly.

'It couldn't have,' said Savita, lying down again. 'I'd have felt it.'

'Well it did, that's all. You probably don't feel its kicks any more. And you sleep very soundly. But it kicked me through your belly, it definitely did, and it woke me up.' He was very insistent.

'Oh, all right,' said Savita. 'Have it your way. I think he must have known that you were having bad dreams, all about chiasmus and Anna - whatever her name is.'

'Anacoluthia.'

'Tes, and 1 was "having good dreams and he didn't want to disturb me.'

'Excellent baby,' said Pran.

'Our baby,' said Savita. Pran got another hug.

They were silent for a while. Then, as Pran was drifting off to sleep, Savita said :

'He seems to have a lot of energy.'

'Oh ?' said Pran, half asleep.

Savita, now wide awake with her thoughts, was in no mood to cut off this conversation.

'Do you think he will turn out to be like Maan?' she asked.

'He?'

'I sense he's a boy,' said Savita in a resolved sort of way.

'In what sense like Maan ?' asked Pran, suddenly remem-

418Bering that his mother had asked him to talk to his brother about the direction of his life - and especially about Saeeda Bai, whom his mother referred to only as 'woh' that woman.

'Handsome - and a flirt ?'

'Maybe,' said Pran, his mind on other matters.

'Or an intellectual like his father ?'

'Oh, why not?' said Pran, drawn back in. 'He could do worse. But without his asthma, I hope.'

'Or do you think he'll have the temper of my grandfather ?'

'No, I don't think it was an angry sort of kick. Just informative. "Here I am; it's two in the morning, and all's well." Or perhaps he was, as you say, interrupting a nightmare.'

'Maybe he'll be like Arun - very dashing and sophisticated.'

'Sorry, Savita,' said Pran. 'If he turns out to be like your brother, I'll disown him. But he'll have disowned us long before that. In fact, if he's like Arun, he's probably thinking at this very moment: "Awful service in this room; I must speak to the manager so that I can get my nutrients on time. And they should adjust the temperature of the amniotic fluid in this indoor swimming pool, as they do in fivestar wombs. But what can you expect in India ? Nothing works at all in this damned country. What the natives need is a good solid dose of discipline." Perhaps that's why he kicked me.'

Savita laughed. 'You don't know Arun well enough,' was her response.

Pran merely grunted.

'Anyway, he might take after the women in this family,' Savita went on. 'He might turn out to be like your mother or mine.' The thought pleased her.

Pran frowned, but this latest flight of Savita's fancy was too taxing at two in the morning. 'Do you want me to get you something to drink ?' he asked her.

'No, mm, yes, a glass of water.'

Pran sat up, coughed a little, turned towards the bedside

419table, switched on the bedside lamp, and poured out a glass of cool water from the thermos flask.

'Here, darling,' he said, looking at her with slightly rueful affection. How beautiful she looked now, and how wonderful it would be to make love with her.

'You don't sound too good, Pran,' said Savita.

Pran smiled, and passed his hand across her forehead. 'I'm fine.'

'I worry about you.'

'I don't,' Pran lied.

'You don't get enough fresh air, and you use your lungs too much. I wish you were a writer, not a lecturer.' Savita drank the water slowly, savouring its coolness in the warm night.

'Thanks,' said Pran. 'But you don't get enough exercise either. You should walk around a bit, even during your pregnancy.'