Priyamvada & Co.

Chapter 3

A few weeks later, feet propped up on a footstool and fingers speed-punching the keys on his laptop, Prithvi was checking out Danby's Heist, the newly launched pirate video game in the market; he'd designed the concept for the game and was excited to see how it had turned out.

As a mechanical engineer, forced to follow in his father's footsteps, it was serendipitous that he had discovered the gaming industry and fallen in love with designing video games instead of engines. And here she was, his latest baby, finally in his possession after months of design and development. And boy, was she smarter than her creator! He chuckled at how he himself had envisioned every difficulty level, and how those were now coming back to destroy him. Oh yeah! It still felt wonderful to have been part of the project although it was now more than six months since he'd resigned from the US firm and returned to India for good.

A crashing sound from the kitchen broke his concentration. He shut his laptop and hurried towards it. Splattered on the floor of the kitchen was a pool of brown curry. His mother had a frozen expression of shock on her face. Daisy was on her knees, apologising profusely, trying to clean up the mess but only making more in the process. "Sorry, really sorry, didn't see that bowl near my elbow," Daisy muttered, as her hands flew all over the place.

"Daisy's here to take care of you, not the kitchen," Prithvi scolded his mother. "Did I not tell you that we should engage a cook and give Daisy some time for herself?"

"Nonsense," his mother said. "She loves being in the kitchen."

"You terrify her in the kitchen!"

It was true. Daisy tried so hard to prove herself around his mother that she was always committing blunders.

Daisy turned around and wiped the sweat off her forehead. "Oh no, Kuttan Sir. This really was an accident. I love to cook. I'm happy to learn under Ma'am."

There was no stopping Daisy, who'd been trying to learn to cook ever since the day she'd come to work for them. Only, her upma tasted like rubber, her rotis were too tough to chew, and all her curries had extra salt. "Ma!" Prithvi looked at his mother, agonised.

His mother ignored him. "Daisy!" she ordered. "Just let everything be! It's almost dinner time. Just get whatever there is, on to the table, now."

Daisy nodded and set about to get the plates and spoons. Prithvi and his mother moved towards the dining room, leaving Daisy to carry on without all the attention to her clumsiness with pots and pans. With her patient, the lady was a gem, so it didn't really matter if elsewhere she floundered.

Out of the kitchen, Vinodini turned to Prithvi. "If you'd married at the right age, I'd have had a daughter-in-law taking care of these things right now."

Oh no, he wasn't getting into that conversation trap again! He was quite happy being single. He'd been with women when he was studying and working in the US but, somehow, he'd never fallen in love. He doubted he even had that gene in him.

His mother turned her wheelchair around. "I don't know how you managed just by yourself all these years!"

"I managed just great. I'm also a good cook, which I'd prove to you if only you'd let me into the kitchen." Before the accident he'd been fine, he thought. Happy and content with his work, and cooking for his friends most weekends. He did not remember spending a single weekend alone. He touched his hip unconsciously.

She noticed immediately. "Does it still hurt?"

"Not much." He took his place at the dining table. "The limp should also go away soon," he added, in case she was wondering about that but was afraid to ask.