The moment the sergeant left, Samir collapsed like a punctured balloon. He felt exhausted; the few hours of sleep he'd snatched at the colonial office weren't enough even though he'd tuned out, and didn't enter the New World. But he didn't want to go to sleep. He wanted badly to talk to Rani about the latest developments, and he didn't want to do it in the New World.
It was a funny thing, but Old World problems always felt unimportant in the New World. They seemed unreal. Yes, he had to talk to Rani right here, in the house, in Mumbai. She'd gone to the market like she did every day, and she'd taken Amrita with her. She was always back by late afternoon; Samir was determined to wait for her return.
