Battle for Bittora by Anuja Chauhan

Author:Anuja Chauhan
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2014-01-20T09:36:00.042196+00:00

A red-faced Bunty said, 'Shhh! Softer, Pinky. He's a great man, very broad-minded, and you know Zak likes him.'

Zain turned to her. 'I'm sorry if you're upset, Pink. But he's a real harbinger of change in the party. Karan Sethie believes in democracy.'

'Please!' I snorted, and knocked back my mojito. 'I know their kind of democracy! Democracy means the majority rules - Hindus are the majority - so Hindus rule. Spare me that crap.'

'Yeah,' said Pinky, looking at me approvingly, 'and Zak, don't say you're sorry I'm upset. You don't give a damn that I'm upset - and you know it!'

Zain stared at both of us, pretending to look alarmed. 'Oops,' he muttered ruefully. Then he walked away.

Pinky looked after him in frustration. 'Typical,' she said, 'he doesn't even think we're worth a debate. I hate him.'

'Yeah,' I agreed with feeling.

I looked around the room. Zain was talking to Nulwallah. Rumi had buttoned up Dugguji and was explaining to him earnestly exactly what the lyricist meant by the phrase ishq di gali, in the hit Bollywood number 'Ishq di gali vich no entry'. Then he moved on to the multiple oral sex insinuations involved in lighting a beedi from your jigar. 'You know the shape of a beedi, right?' he was telling the old man seriously. 'It's blunt and cylindrical. Now imagine it placed on a young nymph's chest. I'm telling you, sir, the Bollywood greats are nothing but a bunch of dirty old men...'

I shuddered and looked away.

The old bureaucrat who'd been talking to Zain wandered up. 'Hello,' he said animatedly. 'Do you know that the COAI, the Cellular Operators Association of India, is conducting a study to understand the revenue implications of the missed call phenomenon in India?'

'Err... no, sir,' I said blankly. 'Have they?'

He nodded vigorously. 'They estimate that the loss of revenue due to people communicating through missed calls is as much as thirty per cent.'

'That's incredible,' I said politely.

'Yes,' he said. 'Excuse me, beta.'

He wandered off again and I turned back to Pinky.

'Why don't I know you?' I asked abruptly. 'I mean, I knew Zain when we were kids but you...'

'I grew up in the UK,' she said. 'I've come down to set up an NGO. Just moved here a couple of months ago. I'm working with underprivileged women.'

'Awesome,' I replied automatically, but my mind was on something else. 'Uh, tell me, Pinky, d'you know when Zain got started on this whole IJP trip? It just doesn't add up.'

She looked thoughtful. 'I don't know,' she said finally. 'He'd been wanting to do something for Bittora for years and he fell in with that Karan Sethie at some mountain rally - he's a rallyist too, you know that? Anyway, they did some major male bonding and Sethie managed to reel him in. He told him the party is introspecting madly after the last debacle at the polls. They're going to change the system from within, become more inclusive, provide a genuine alternative to the Pragati, yada yada yada - Zain wants to be part of that change.

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