The number of people who hover around you in this place is suffocating, to say the least. Imagine having to ask for a moment’s privacy in your own home.
Gauri Elena walks into the room with her perfume, apologizing for being a couple of minutes late. She has no traffic to blame, if one discounts the lift.
‘How are you, Ahdheeeta?’ she asks, her scent filling the air around me at once.
There goes my name!
I smile and nod, not knowing what exactly to say to her. I don’t know if her son, ‘my financer’, has told her why exactly I am partaking of their overgenerous hospitality.
‘How are you doing?’ I ask, returning her question with one of my own.
‘I have been busy.’ She turns to the staff waiting on us. ‘Coffee,’ she says, looking at me.
I nod.
Gauri Elena asks for two bone-dry, double-shot cappuccinos before adding, ‘The rajkumari likes her coffee just like I have mine.’ She asks if I want orange juice. She either knows my breakfast choices or we simply have similar tastes.
‘Do you have eggs?’ she asks me.
‘Not today,’ I say. ‘Just plain toast will be good.’
‘Give us both plain toast, yeah… Yuvraj will order his own breakfast when he arrives.’
Gauri Elena turns to me. ‘I must apologize for Vedveer. He’s going to need a few more minutes. My son works too hard.’
‘Like I was telling you,’ she continues without a pause. ‘I’ve been busy. We have a few charities that I take care of, and now I’m managing Navya’s, too, as she’s been travelling a fair bit.’
My eyes are on Gauri Elena, and it looks to me like shehas just worked out. She has showered and changed, of course, but her skin is without make-up, and her cheeks are flushed. She is wearing a white sleeveless linen shirt on dark blue linen bottoms. Her arms are superbly toned.
‘Do you visit Jaipur often, Ranisa?’ I ask.
‘No,’ she says. ‘I’m generally here only when my husband visits, which is a couple of times a year, maybe thrice, but of late, I’ve been coming more often because of Vedveer. Not that we get too much time together.’
Maybe the senior Rathore is also in the building.
‘Do you work out?’ I get back to the subject that is tugging my insides.
‘Religiously,’ she says, adding, ‘every day of the week. As I’ve grown older, it is something that I do for myself. I work out to keep my sanity.’
I nod.
‘When I was your age, I hadn’t seen the inside of a gym,’ she says with a laugh. ‘That had to change when the greys cropped up. I’m not a sporty person like Vedveer, so to get a routine going took a lot of effort, but both my children pushed me to it.’
Raju asked if I wanted him to travel with me. Had I said yes, I wouldn’t have been sitting at this table… I’d be enjoying breakfast after a full workout. It would’ve been good to have Raju here in Jaipur; he’s a stress buster. He had come to Kolkata with me when we were launching our café there, and we had so much fun. He drove me around the city on a scooter!
‘What do you do?’ I ask Gauri Elena about her workout.
‘Pilates thrice a week, yoga twice, and I walk barefoot on the lawn twice a week. None of my workouts lasts over forty-five minutes, including the walks.’
‘Do you have a gym here?’ I have to ask.
Just as the words are out of my mouth, breakfast arrives. Behind the butler is the chef, carrying a third tray. As ourbreakfast orders are laid out before us, the chef puts down a plate that has avocado and a poached egg on a thin slice of bread.
‘Ranisa,’ the chef says, ‘I think you should try it. The thin-crust sourdough is very good, and the avocado is perfect.’
Gauri Elena wears a broad smile and nods. ‘You should ask the rajkumari, too. She eats very little at an age when one can digest stones.’
The chef turns to me and bows. ‘I will get the rajkumari a fresh plate,’ he offers with a broad smile.
