In Times of Siege by Githa Hariharan

Author:Githa Hariharan [Hariharan, Githa]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780307426383
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2003-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

The fundoo army has yet another man on the run. This may be news to the gods, but word has already got through to Seattle. Rekha is on the phone again, but she no longer seems to remember the existence of her precious garden, or the household, or even Meena. Her low, cool voice is pitched at a higher note than usual.

“I read the news online,” she says. “Why didn’t you tell me it was a bigger mess than I thought?”

“It just grew before I knew what was happening,” Shiv says, on the defensive. But he also catches the bewilderment in her voice, the sense of disbelief he too has been feeling. “It’s so sudden, so unexpected,” he says. “The fuss, the interviews, being hated by people I don’t even know … It’s all strange and new—at least to me,” he adds humbly.

Rekha listens in silence, then she says wearily, “I should get back, I can’t stay on for another month. I’ll worry too much about what will happen next if I am here. About how you are managing it all.”

For an instant Shiv sees a tempting vision: Rekha in charge; and all the rest—the Head and the Dean, Meena and Amar, even the Manch and poison-ink Current—sent to their respective seats in a well-ordered classroom. Shiv regretfully lets go of this comforting illusion. “Let’s not do anything in a hurry,” he says. “I’m fine and there’s nothing to manage. A lot of people—respected academics—are supporting me. In any case, the lesson has gone to some review panel of supposed experts.”

Rekha sighs in exasperation. “I wish you hadn’t got involved in something like this. And all for a correspondence course and some poet no one remembers. It’s so unlike you too.”

“These phone calls are getting expensive,” says Shiv. “I’ll e-mail you every time I go to the Department. Or I’ll buy a modem for the old computer at home. Anyway, don’t do anything to your ticket yet—maybe it will fizzle out soon—go away as suddenly as it came. Maybe we’re making too much of a little thing.”

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