Mixed Masala

Chapter 11

"Hey! Hands off, mister," Kavitha said slapping her fiancé's wrist as he tried to steal yet another tiger prawn from the platter.

Rakesh looked at her sorrowfully, but meekly retreated to the sitting room where Sudha and Suresh were poring over several of Sudha's old family albums. They were gathered at Meera's this Sunday afternoon, a week after her father's birthday bash. It was Rakesh's turn to drive down from Penang and so Meera had decided to call her pals over for a nice Sunday lunch.

"Poor guy," Meera said to her friend. "You're evil."

Kavitha scowled. "He's already had three of those. The man needs to learn how to control his appetite." Meera raised an eyebrow as Kavitha added suddenly breaking into a grin, "Otherwise there won't be any food left for me!"

Meera had made Northern Indian cuisine for her guests comprising creamy chicken tikka masala, tandoori prawns, lamb kofta and grilled aubergines, biryani, naan and thick raita. Kavitha added a little more chopped coriander leaves to the bowl of raita, then stepped back to view the small dining table.

"Wow! You've outdone yourself again!" she said smacking her lips. "This looks heavenly."

She looked towards where Sudha and the boys were seated and made a face. "Look at her! Not in the least bothered to give us a hand."

Meera smiled. "All you did was chop up the malli. What? Did you and Rakesh sleep in late again?" she asked, her eyes wide with innocence.

Kavitha stuck a tongue out at her friend, but she had to admit that she felt a little guilty for arriving so late. She had wanted to come over a lot earlier and give Meera a hand (even though Meera had assured her that everything was under control) but well ... Besides, Kavitha thought, Sudha lived just downstairs. Why couldn't she had helped out? After all, she didn't have a boyfriend to "entertain" ...

"I was kidding!" Meera said laughing as Kavitha suddenly blushed. "Besides, Suresh was here pretty early. He gave me a hand."

Kavitha raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by "pretty early"? Early as in he got here early this morning ... or early as in he stayed on after dinner last night?"

Now it was Meera's turn to blush. "Don't start. You know it's nothing like that. I'm not interested in him in that way."

"Hmm ..." Kavitha said as she glanced at the trio in the sitting room again. "But it looks like someone else is."

It had occurred to Meera that Sudha was behaving a little strange this evening. Normally, the girl would have been too shy to say more than a few words every now and then, yet this evening, she had arrived armed with at least half a dozen of her photo albums just so Suresh would not "get too bored waiting for lunch to be served".

Kavitha and Meera walked over to see what the others were doing.

"And this is me when I was eleven ... That's my trophy for long-jump ... and that's me at the beach with a cousin ... Oh, and that's me when I was twelve ..."

Suresh was obediently flipping the pages of the album very slowly so that Sudha could "explain" each and every photograph contained therein.

"Come on, you guys," Meera said. "The food's getting cold ... except for the raita which is getting warm."

Suresh looked up at Meera, his eyes screaming desperation as Sudha said, "Oh, just five more minutes okay? We're almost done with this album. You don't mind, do you?"

Meera shrugged and slumped into an armchair. "Whatever," she mumbled.

"Don't worry, Suresh," Kavitha said, grinning. "There are a lot less photographs of her as she grows older ... on account of her growing more and more hideous every year!"