ABSTRACT
A man called Upendra, who lives alone in Delhi, is visited by a woman in whom he recognizes the girl he used to keep company with when both of them were children. Both she and her sister had the name 'Eelah' (lla). He used to call her cho!f 'i' ('E junior') in order to distinguish her from her elder sister barf 'f' ('E senior').2 She was much older than he was. She would teach him, help him when he had problems, and take him everywhere she would go. When teased because of it she would tell her girlfriends that one day she would marry him, and immediately afterwards she would burst into laughter. Occasionally she would whisper into his ear, or caress him, and he used to be frightened by such behaviour and by the sentimental words she sometimes addressed to him. She lives in Kanpur now. The man is quite surprised when she unexpectedly turns up on his doorstep, and while she talks and steps inside, he cannot find any words to welcome her at first. When he finally manages to speak, telling her that she has not changed at all, she is happy. Even afterwards he does not react much to her questions and remarks, and practically the only thing he tells her is that he usually eats in restaurants instead of cooking dinner for one. While she takes a shower, he inspects the contents of her attache case. When she returns to the room, he
is surprised that even at her present age her face looks so attractive. When she next tells him how a woman they both used to know had embraced her in public at an unexpected meeting, he suddenly asks her why she does not get married. She laughs first, then grows silent. They decide to go out and have food somewhere. While they walk along the street, he wonders what the neighbours will think. They take a scooter rickshaw, which drops them far away, and start walking. She tells him she is on her way to Simla for a teachers' conference, and will have to leave the same night. When she turns down his invitation to drop in again on her way back, he feels offended. They pass by a shop, and she urges him to buy her a present, which he does after some protest. During their meal in a restaurant she is silent, then suggests that they go to see a movie. The man remembers how once, long ago, she had taken him to a movie and had been so close to him that he felt as if he was going to suffocate. Now nothing of the sort happens, and as they leave the cinema hall, she sighs. At his place she packs her luggage, and urges him to visit her, or to write to her, because she is quite lonely since her parents have died. She is crying, and he observes the wrinkles in her face, and notices how more than half of her hair is grey.
