Serious Men

will not,’ Adi said. ‘Our secret.’
    They didn’t speak for a while. When the car stopped at a signal, the boy asked, ‘What did the newspaper say?’
    ‘You can read Marathi.’
    ‘I can’t understand the way the papers write. What did the newspaper say?’
    ‘That you are very bright.’
    ‘That’s all?’
    ‘It also said that you passed a test which five hundred boys wrote.’
    ‘When did I write the test?’
    ‘You know that. Think.’
    ‘Twenty-second April?’
    ‘Correct. And now you will go to Geneva.’
    ‘Where is Geneva?’
    ‘It’s a big city in Switzerland. You know Switzerland.’
    ‘Yes. But its capital is not Geneva.’
    ‘What is the capital of Switzerland?’
    ‘B-e-r-n-e’.
    ‘You are a very clever boy.’
    ‘I am a genius.’
    Ayyan looked at Adi, a bit concerned for a moment, but when the boy returned the stare both of them burst out laughing.
    ‘Why do countries have capitals?’ Adi asked.
    ‘Because every country wants to say this is the most important city in our place.’
    ‘But don’t other cities feel bad?’
    ‘No. Do you think Bombay feels bad it’s not the capital?’
    ‘Yes.’
    Adi muttered the name of every car that was passing by. ‘Esteem, Skoda, Fiat, Accent, Accent, Baleno, Accent,’ he was saying. He fell silent for about a minute.
    ‘Say, “Decimal system”,’ his father said. ‘D-e-c-i-m-a-l s-y-s-t-e-m.’
    ‘That’s easy,’ Adi said, but a look of concentration came to his face. ‘Decimal system,’ he said slowly.
    At the iron gates where the security guard stared at the backs of young mothers, Adi let go of his father’s hand and ran to his class. Ayyan made his way to meet the fierce Salesian Principal. Sister Chastity looked surprised to see him. ‘Something wrong?’ she asked. (She always hoped something was wrong in the lives of married people.)
    ‘It’s something the boy has done,’ Ayyan said.
    Sister Chastity went through the news report. In the brief silence that followed, Ayyan could hear the distant murmurs of a class where the teacher was probably delayed. Sister Chastity’s moustache had grown a bit darker, he thought. He caught a glimpse of Christ in the background: Christ, whose heart was on fire and whose munificent eyes reminded him of the woman who had stepped out of the pastry shop yesterday evening.
    Sister Chastity lifted her head and inhaled thoughtfully. ‘This boy,’ she said kindly, ‘What has this boy done? I see his picture. But I am sorry, I cannot read Marathi. I can read Hindi and even French, but not Marathi. The script is the same as Hindi you know but some words …’
    Ayyan translated the story for her. ‘This boy,’ she said shakingher head. ‘I am going to put it on the notice-board right away. Praise the Lord! I wish the report had mentioned St Andrew’s, Worli. You know, there are so many schools called St Andrew’s. Praise the Lord!’ She stared at him for a moment and said, ‘I see, Mr Mani, you don’t praise the Lord.’
    ‘Oh – Praise the Lord.’
    ‘Please don’t feel compelled to say these things.’
    ‘Not at all. Lord is lord. Nothing Christian about it,’ he said.
    ‘Him, not it.’
    ‘Him.’
    ‘What if I meant it as a very Christian thing. Would you have still said, “Praise the Lord”?’ she asked.
    ‘Of course. God is one. Hindu god, Christian god – all the same thing.’
    ‘The same one?’
    ‘The same one.’
    ‘Yes,’ Sister Chastity said sadly. ‘People say that. People say many things. But I am sure you like the sound of “Christ is the true Lord”. There is something about it?’
    ‘Yes, there is something about it, but a lawyer was telling me a few months ago that it is against the Indian constitution to say “Christ is the true Lord”.’
    ‘What matters, Mr Mani, is the human constitution.’
    ‘I don’t understand, Sister.’
    ‘It’s all right. A day like this, Mr Mani, when your son is showing signs of a great future, isn’t it time for you to consider how the boy’s spiritual life is going to be?’
    ‘I am too dazed today.’
    ‘I understand. But sooner or later, the Lord will make a decision for you.’
    ‘His mother is happy with Buddhism right now.’
    ‘But Buddhism is a philosophy, Mr Mani. Christianity is a religion. Christ said everything that Buddha said and much more. Buddha stopped at the Peepal tree. Christ went all the way.’
    ‘Yes, but his mother is …’
    ‘I know, I know,’ Sister Chastity