India Becoming by Akash Kapur

Author:Akash Kapur
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781101560990
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2006-04-04T04:00:00+00:00

Selvi was also looking ahead, thinking of higher salaries and better jobs. She, too, was planning for the future. But she wasn’t as ambitious as Hari. She wasn’t planning to quit her company or start a new job. She said she felt loyal to her company.

At her job interview, the recruiter had asked her where she saw herself five years down the road. Selvi replied that she hoped to be in the same position as the recruiter. I thought it was a good strategic answer. But Selvi meant it sincerely. She was kind of old-fashioned; she wanted to move up the rungs at a single company.

We’d been meeting, now, for over a year. I thought we knew each other pretty well. She seemed more comfortable with me. When we talked, she looked me in the eye. She sometimes asked about my personal life. She didn’t dress up for me anymore; in the mornings, she’d occasionally meet me in her nightgown.

Selvi still wouldn’t see me outside the apartment, though, and our meetings had a furtive, shady quality that made me feel vaguely guilty, like I was transgressing some boundary. The guard would sign me in, follow me through a courtyard that led to her building, and then wait outside, as if to make sure I really was taking the stairs to her apartment.

There was a woman in Selvi’s building, a neighbor I assumed, whom I met a couple times on the stairs. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun, and she had a severe, unwelcoming face. She stared at me the first time she saw me. The second time we walked past each other, I smiled and she looked away. She seemed angry.

I met Selvi one Republic Day, January 26, a date that marks the formal adoption of the Indian Constitution. The road from Auroville to Chennai was decorated with flags and portraits of freedom fighters. All over the countryside, children in blue and khaki uniforms were standing at attention in schoolyards as the national flag was raised and the anthem played.

Selvi had the day off; she seemed relaxed. She told me about eating at a restaurant the night before with her friends. She emphasized that they didn’t eat at any “fancy, hi-fi places,” but it was nonetheless an indulgence, something she did rarely, and that she wouldn’t have done at home. It was one of the privileges of living in a city; it made her feel special.

“Maybe one time I could come with you?” I asked.

To my surprise, she said she would be fine with that, if her roommates agreed. She went into the bathroom, where two of them were brushing their teeth. I heard a discussion, vague behind the sound of running water, and then one of Selvi’s roommates came out to meet me.

Her name was Sudha. She had a round face, and she was dressed in an orange salwar kameez. I introduced myself, I told her that I was writing a book and would love to know a little bit about her life.

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