November 24. “Sorry, Button, but the ply will be put back outside the windows for some more repair work.”

“What are you saying? And just when my friends realized that I had not vanished from the face of this earth! But why?”

“You know that we did not get our windows removed because of the approaching monsoons and the workers did the work as best as they could with the windows in place. We now find that because of that, there are cracks on the marble frame and water is seeping in through those cracks every time the occupants of the floor above us wash their windows.”

”What a shame and after you had the ply in place for 2-3 months! Or was it more?”

“Just bear with us for another 10-12 days and all this messy work will be over. I know how depressed you feel but I am helpless.”

“No problem. I’ll tell my friends tomorrow morning before the ply comes up that I am going out of town for a couple of weeks and will catch up with them on my return.”

“You’ll get a tighter hug tomorrow morning for being so understanding. Thank you.”