January 9. 5.30pm. “Button, see the Simpsons?”

“Yes. What about them?”

“That’s us.”

“I know what you mean.”

“Even on New Year’s eve, after having booked a table at Royal China for 8 in the evening, the four of us debated if we should actually go or cancel the booking. The next thing we did was push the reservation to 8.30 but surprise of surprises, actually managed to get dressed and make it outdoors. We finally landed there at 9.”

“I remember clearly.”

“If we had dilly-dallied for another 5 minutes, we’d have ended up not going because, after the debate, didi was complaining about how all of us have become ghar-kuno (It’s a Bengali phrase and in translation means—unadventurous, boring). Chotididi and I wanted to stay at home while Dost had already thought about having aloo-paratha for dinner!”

“This family, alas!”