I thought she would sulk for a while, but after seeing that her entreaties were of little effect, she immediately befriended a timid girl from our building whom she could draft into her scheme of things. Rima's dusky ayah, Asha, at eighteen almost a child herself, makes up the required third player in their games. You have adopted me. That's why I'm not fair like all of you. I seated her on my lap and cuddled my big baby.
Some people are born dark, some are fair.
I think of Neha, my first born. Even as a baby, she did not like to be hugged and kissed, did not like her laced frocks to be wrinkled in my smothering embrace. Today Mrs. Amita Shah is visiting us. Since morning there has been a flurry of activity in the kitchen. I saw the cooks preparing more than twenty dishes for the afternoon tea.