“With pleasure.” He rose to his feet and covered the distance between them in three steps, tapping her back with one finger. She stopped crawling and sat down, staring up at him over her back. Her eyebrows turned down, her lips wobbled, and she burst into tears.
“Wha… what did I do?” He went on his knees. “Hey, baby… fine, my den again…”
“MM.” Ritu helped.
“MM! Hey, what did I do? Are you hurt?” He began to pick her up but she pushed away, the resistance so hard. Ritu’s low laughter was ringing behind him.
“Doctor, stop laughing and help, she is hurt!”
“She is not. She wants you to give chase like her.”
“What?”
“Crawl, Nilay. Crawl.”
“Really?” He made a face at the crying baby. Her tear-filled eyes blinked at him, the lashes so long. This was the cutest girl he had ever seen. The last time he had seen one was in the cartoon movie Snow White. When Snow White was born. Ritu came a close second.
MM’s cries broke into another toothy grin and she crawled right into him, ramming her head into his stomach. He chuckled, righting her on her hands and knees. And she took off again, giggling, thumping the floor beneath her. He got on his hands and knees too and gave chase — “I ate a fashion retailer for breakfast today, what did you eat?!” He growled in a monster voice, and her shrieks were deafening as she crawled away.
————————————————————
After a full meal of his most desi tuver-ringan nu shaak, cooked to perfection until tender, sweet-and-sour dal, fulka roti, and rice that he had to force feed the two girls who pretended to whine about being full, Nilay finally collapsed on the sofa with MM sleeping in her bassinet-like car seat beside him.
“You know, I have eaten such a homely Gujarati meal after decades. Simple but so… everyday.” Ritu came out wiping her hands on a napkin. She had picked up the cleaning of dishes after putting MM to sleep.
“I am just surprised thatsheeats everything.” He peeped into the car seat, and at her innocent little face. It was shaped like a bean. In sleep, it looked even fuller. He had been shocked to see how easily she had gobbled up the crushed food Ritu had fed her. All of it. No spice level issues, no tantrums. “She is really cute.”
“She is.”
Ritu settled on the other side of the bassinet.
“She looks like you.”
“Does she?” Ritu smiled, her gaze falling to MM. “I always find her looking like Maya. The same Bambi eyes, batting her eyelashes at you when she wants to get her work done.”
“God save us all when you decide to bat your eyelashes, Doctor.”
Those pretty eyes rose up to his. Their gazes held. Seconds ticked.
“She definitely likes my kind of food.” Ritu broke the moment, pulling a tiny blanket over MM, switching gears. He respected that and switched with her.
“Imagine, you will get this kind of meal regularly here in India. In the US, though…” he swung his head from side to side.
“I am planning to enrol myself into a Gujarati cooking class when I get back. And then, I will make a meal plan and stick to it once I am an expert at this,” she circled a finger at the lunch he had cooked them.
“But you don’t have to. Imagine the luxuries in India. There are such good cooks. Maya’s cook is also great. There is domestic help. Staff to do even your meagre chores for you. Do you have an assistant in America?”
“I had one at the hospital, I will hire one again when I start my practice.”
“In India, you can hire three for that same salary package!”
Her eyebrows shot up in an ‘enough’ expression. He was known to be a bull when chasing, so when did he ever listen?
“And MM,” he pointed at the bassinet. “You love her, don’t you?”
“What’s that got to do with this?”
“You will not be able to see her grow up. I don’t think you will be able to travel more than twice a year…”
