I saw her for the first time, when I, in a grumpy mood exited our car and waited nervously, twisting my pyjamas pocket fibres inside out for no particular reason whatsoever, while my mother and my elder sister, whom I respectfully call as ‘Didi’, that denotes elder sister in the tongues of both the Bengali and Hindi languages.

I was 15 then, a few months short of completing my state board exams. Even that excuse no longer works with my family to escape from the yearly outings to the Puja. So the idea of me enjoying, with my friends in the ground back home, while the rest of my family went to the puja, without the only son of their house was definitely not acceptable. At least for them.

So I was dragged against my wishes and brought here for the umpteenth time. A very regular person to...