March 16. “Why are mothers such self-sacrificing avatars?”

“I don’t know why, Button. God must have made them that way.”

“I remember the visual of a 36-year old orangutan cradling her newborn in one of the newspapers today. There was so much tenderness in the way she was holding her baby.”

“Maybe it’s the umbilical cord that links a foetus with the mother for nine long months that is responsible for unconditional love throughout life. I also saw a photograph some days back of a mother sitting all by herself on the steps of a Benaras temple and praying for death while counting her prayer beads. She had received news that her son was ill and was praying for her death so her son could recover. Do you know that children take aged parents to places like Benaras on the pretext of taking them for pilgrimage only to come back home after losing them! The parent is so old that she has no means of finding her way back home so she stays there as a beggar, literally, totally dependent on the temple authorities for alms.”

“That’s mean.”

“KKR lost miserably.”

“I watched the match. But more than that, I loved the walk with you both. Shabby was starving. Did you see the way she gulped down her portion of the food as well as the second portion?”

“I feel scared when she lounges in the centre of the road—like she was doing today—expecting vehicles to skirt around her and move on. I heard a car screeching to a halt some time back. Hope nothing happened to her. Or to the other one. Must give the other one a name too. Why not call her the Other One? Aaj chale?”