classical music during the time they had lived togetherm

the student hostel. As a result, Lata often found hersel

humming some tune or other in one of her favourite raags. I

Malati did not disclaim Varun's compliment.

'Do you think so?' she said, turning around to look deeply into his eyes. 'You are very sweet to say so.' I

Varun blushed to the depths of his soul and was speech-1

less for a few minutes. But as they passed the Brahmpur

Race-course, he gripped the tonga-wallah's arm and cried: I

'Stop F

'What's the matter ?' asked Lata. B

'Oh - nothing - nothing - if we're in a hurry, Jet's go

on. Yes, let's go on.'

'Of course we're not, Varun Bhai,' she said. 'We're only I going to the zoo. Let's stop if you want.'

After they had got down, Varun, almost uncontrollably I excited, wandered to the white palings and stared through. I 'It's the only anti-clockwise race-course in India other F than Lucknow,' he breathed, almost to himself, awestruck. 'They say it's based on the Derby,' he added to

young Bhaskar, who happened to be standing next to him.

'But what's the difference?' asked Bhaskar. 'The distance is the same, isn't it, whether you run clockwise or anticlockwise ?'

Varun paid no attention to Bhaskar's question. He had started walking slowly, dreamily, by himself, anti-clockwise along the fence. He was almost pawing the earth. Lata caught up with him : 'Varun Bhai ?' she said.

'Er - yes ? Yes ?'

'About yesterday evening.'

'Yesterday evening ?' Varun dragged himself back to the two-legged world. 'What happened ?'

'Our sister got married.'

'Ah. Oh. Yes, yes, I know. Savita,' he added, hoping to imply alertness by specificity.

'Well,' said Lata, 'don't let yourself be bullied by Arun Bhai. Just don't.' She stopped smiling, and looked at him as a shadow crossed his face. 'I really hate it, Varun Bhai, I really hate seeing him bully you. I don't mean that you should cheek him or answer back or anything, just that you shouldn't let it hurt you the way that - well, that I can see it does.'

'No, no -' he said, uncertainly.

'Just because he's a few years older doesn't make him your father and teacher and sergeant-major all rolled into one.'

Varun nodded unhappily. He was too well aware that while he lived in his elder brother's house he was subject to his elder brother's will.

'Anyway, I think you should be more confident,' continued Lata. 'Arun Bhai tries to crush everyone around him like a steamroller, and it's up to us to remove our egos from his path. I have a hard enough time, and I'm not even in Calcutta. I just thought I'd say so now, because at the house I'll hardly get the chance to talk to you alone. And tomorrow you'll be gone.'

Lata spoke from experience, as Varun well knew. Arun, when angry, hardly cared what he said. When Lata had taken it into her head to become a nun - a foolish, adolescent notion, but her own - Arun, exasperated with the lack of success of his bludgeoning attempts at dissuasion, had said: 'All right, go ahead, become a nun, ruin your life, no one would have married you anyway, you look just like the Bible - flat in front and flat at the back.' Lata thanked God that she wasn't studying at Calcutta University; for most of the year at least, she was outside the range of Arun's blunderbuss. Even though those words were no longer true, the memory of them still stung.

'I wish you were in Calcutta,' said Varun.'Surely you must have some friends -' said Lata. 'Well, in the evening Arun Bhai and Meenakshi Bhabhi are often out and I have to mind Aparna,' said f arun, smih'ng weakly. 'Not that I mind,' he added.

'Varun, this won't do,' said Lata. She placed her hand

firmly on his slouching shoulder and said: 'I want you tof

go out with your friends - with people you really like and:

who like you - for at least two evenings a week. Pretend'

you have to attend a coaching session or something.' Lata*

didn't care for deception, and she didn't know whether1

Varun would be any good at it, but she didn't want things ;

to continue as they were. She was worried about Varun,

He had looked even more jittery at the wedding than when

she had seen him a few months previously. j

A train hooted suddenly from alarmingly close, and the tonga horse shied.

'How amazing,' said Varun to himself, all thoughts of J

everything else obliterated. i He patted the horse when they got back into the tonga. [

'How far is the station from here ?' he asked the tonga- (

wallah. j

'Oh, it's just over there,' said the tonga-wallah, indicating vaguely the built-up area beyond the well- laid-out gardens of the race-course. 'Not far from the zoo. '

I wonder if it gives the local horses an advantage, Varun said to himself. Would the others tend to bolt? What difference would it make to the odds ?

1.11

WHEN they got to the zoo, Bhaskar and Aparna joined forces and asked to ride on the children's railway, which, Bhaskar noted, also went around anti-clockwise. Lata and Malati wanted a walk after the tonga ride, but they were overruled. All five of them sat in a small, post-box-red ' compartment, squashed together and facing each other this I time, while the little green steam engine puffed along on its p one-foot-wide track. Varun sat opposite Malati, their knees

I