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Rules don't change
The door bell rang and Manthan stepped in. He looked more hassled than usual. It wasn't the traffic or the boss. It was something else. He removed an envelope from his pocket and gave it to Rahi. With a worried expression she read it and with a sigh, sank in the sofa. Kokilaben, Manthan's maternal aunt from Nagpur was coming to visit them.
Kokilaben was a showpiece. From top to bottom. She loved and strived and struggled to look young and blooming all the time, obviously, with the opposite effect. And from the time she had visited 'Amrika ' and come back, she was half 'phoren '. How she loved eating (and making, mind you!) pizza and pasta, which according to her was 'Amrikan ' food. Besides sporting sunglasses, comparing her pierced nose and ears with those of Britney Spears was her favourite pass-time.
Rahi and Manthan were worried that she would be an added responsibility and given her habits, an embarrassment as well. They were also skeptical about what Sugati would feel about it, especially as she would have to share her bedroom with Masi. Rahi vainly tried to pursuade Sugati, their 16 yr old daughter, to share her room with Kuku Masi, as Kokilaben was fondly called. After an hour of persuasion and three hundred and forty eight deals that Rahi had to make with Sugati to appease her, she finally agreed.
From the time Kuku Masi stepped into the household, Sugati and she disapproved of each other. Both of them had a problem with the other person not acting her age. Both of them dressed exactly the same, jeans, capris, jackets, earrings right down to the colour of their toe-nails. Kokilaben thought Sugati was too young to be wearing lipstick and Sugati thought that basically Kuku Masi shouldn't be wearing any of the things that she happily strut around in.
Despite their differences, both struck up a strange friendship, nothing warm or motherly, but an attraction based on the curiosity to get into the world of the other. And an innate, reflexive protectiveness for the other. An elderly lady desperately courting youth and a youngster waiting to get older, craving to live the other side of the grass and wanting to save the other from the pitfalls of this side. Along with myriad disagreements, both would share each other's make-up, tell each other what they knew about life, with Sugati trying everyday to make Kokilaben understand how pizza and pasta were not American dishes.
One of their activities together included going jogging every morning. During one such session, Sugati introduced Manav to Kokilaben. Sugati had a secret (and a huge) crush on him. Of course she didn't tell her that and of course Kokilaben, despite her pretence, understood it. She smiled to herself and, for a moment, was lost as though some bitter-sweet memory had struck her, but revived herself as Manav's father joined them. After a round of polite conversation, the two sets went their own ways.
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