| 'Time' Series: Book One |
| 'Time' Series: The Azar-Dogra-Sassoon Saga. |
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In "Secrets Hidden in Time," a riveting tale unfolds as Hinduja Rao...
"Wait! No! No, those aren't for you." She rushed from behind the kitchen counter with a spatula in her right hand.
"Why?" The sudden interruption caused him to look up in surprise.
"Those aloo parathas are for Anni. They don't contain any chilies or spice mix, just salt and mashed potatoes." She reasoned, "I am making yours now. They'll be done in a minute. Just read your newspaper until that time and keep his parathas back in casserole. He likes them lukewarm."
"Inu! He is just a child—lukewarm parathas? really?!"
"Haan toh? Mera beta hai!" Taking a round about around the slab edge, she flipped the crisp, looking stuffed flatbread on the Indian style fry pan and said, "Usse khaana jaisa pasand hai, woh waise hi khayega!"
(Translation: So what? He is my son! (He will eat his food the way he likes.)
Standing up, he picked his plate up from the table and made his way towards the open-style kitchen. He walked past the bar stools arranged in front of the countertop to the slab attached to the other side of the kitchen wall. Keeping the plate aside, he plopped himself up on the white marble kitchen slab.
Turning around, she brought two thick and crispy parathas, balancing them both on the spatula and plopped them on his plate. She then walked back to the inbuilt gas stove and placed the spatula half in half out on the pan.
Pouring some tomato chutney into a small bowl, she kept it on his plate next to the parathas. A minute later, she plopped the third paratha on his plate, switched off the gas, and walked towards their room.
Ten minutes later, he heard loud giggles. Taking the plate along with himself, he walked to the source of the exuberant sound.
Taking a turn, he walked inside their room. The resonation continued to come from the closet-to-bathroom area.
And there it was—the scene that could melt anyone's heart. Leaning on to the door, he looked at them.
She was giving a bath to that little brat—let's say, she was trying to.
Anirudh was in his birth suit inside the small VIBGYOR-themed plastic bath tub that Hinduja had bought from some supermarket. Weirdly enough, when he was renovating this penthouse apartment, he specifically asked the interior designer for small baby bath tubs inside both this bathroom and the bathroom attached to Anirudh's nursery. But even after the bath tub was there, he never saw his wife bathing his son inside those granite tubs. There was some sort of fear in her eyes. He could make that out. Instead, she bought this rainbow-colored plastic tub with elephant drawings around it. It was cute.
