March 7. 12pm. “Button, Dost and I landed in Delhi a little while back.”

“Where are you staying?”

“At the Leela Palace.”

“Is it nice?”

“Very nice.”

“Are you taking a break?”

“I am but Dost is here for work. Remind me to read you a story I wrote a long time back on cockroaches.”

“Why do cockroaches feature in your stories often? The first story we wrote on Slowcoach, the tortoise, also had cockroach characters!”

“Is it because I hate them so much?”

“I am asking you.”

“I used to be very good dissecting them when I was in school!”

“Why were you dissecting cockroaches?”

“Had to do it for Biology lessons.”

“What else did you cut up?”

“Frogs.”

“Ugh!”

“What’s ugh about it?”

“Because they have lives! Imagine someone anesthetizing you and cutting you up!”

“I was in school then and had great ambitions of becoming a doctor some day. Also, my love for other living species wasn’t so strong then.”