NK has done this hundreds of times, but the hesitation at the doorstep is always the same.

People often mistake him for an income-tax officer and hold their breath as he looks at the tablet in his hand, his glasses inching towards the bridge of his nose. 

Like the previous house, the lady in this one too does not give him her name. She is “Ram ji ki biwi”. The one before was “Kunal’s father’s wife”.

The date of birth is even more difficult to ascertain. “There was a flood the year I was born,” is the best one........

© The Ken