She has one luxurious minute before it goes off and the mad dash to get ready for school officially begins. She takes a bath, dries her hair, dresses, changes her mind, dresses again and heads into the kitchen, where she cranks up the radio. Her father, who sets his alarm for 15 minutes later, is stumbling groggily across the apartment. A chef and restaurateur, Nantha Kumar normally handles knives deftly, but, at this time of the day, it is all he can do to clumsily cut and skin a melon.
Nobody is sure why.
At 12, Madhuri is still easy enough to rouse in the morning, but her father knows that it will become more of an ordeal come high school. As the owner of Nantha's Cuisine, an Indonesian restaurant popular with the night owls in Montreal's hip Plateau district, he tends the kitchen until 1 a.m. on weekdays and 3 a.m. on weekends. He often finds himself getting home from work just as his daughter is preparing to leave for Nouvelle-Querbes primary school or, at best, getting only a few hours of shuteye before they sit down together for breakfast. Mr. Kumar, a divorced father who is his daughter's primary caregiver three days a week, feels that it is important to spend time with Madhuri. He's just not sure that, in the rush for school, it's quality time.