‘I need your help, Thirumeni’
‘I’m not a Nambudiri’
‘Aren’t you the Malayali mantravadi, people are talking about?’
‘No. But I know some mantrams and tanthrams . You want to attract some old woman?’
‘I can do that myself’
‘How old are you?’
‘Eighty’
‘Oh, then you don’t need my help’
‘My problem is different. I feel lonely. I feel bored; at times, awfully bored. Some one said, there is Kerala magician near the Central Park and he can help me. That is how I’m here’
‘I’m not that person. But, I can free you from your boredom’
‘Will be grateful’
‘Start cooking’
‘Why should I? There are women to do that job’
‘You want me to help you to come out of boredom?’
‘Yes’
‘Then, start cooking. The feeling of satisfaction in feeding others, especially your kin, with the food made by your hands, is unique’
‘But, I don’t know cooking’
‘You will learn it in three days’
‘I have, so far, not entered the kitchen. Any precaution?’
‘Only one. There is some relationship between the timing of your having the urge to empty your bladder and the milk’s anxiety to overflow, while getting cooked. Despite your watching it closely, the milk will boil exactly when you move away for fraction of a second, invariably for peeing’
‘So, stop peeing?’
‘No, you can’t do that. Switch of the burner before you go. Come back and switch on the stove again’
‘If I feel the urge again, when I come back?’
‘Stay permanently in the toilet and sing songs. That will remove your boredom’
‘I don’t know singing ‘
‘You will learn in three days ‘
‘If I don’t learn?’
‘Come and join me. We will open a Pan shop’
‘Who will prepare pan masala ? You?’
‘We will hire a woman’
‘Why we? I will hire her. I will start the pan shop. Why do I need your help?’
‘You have started thinking in those lines, right?’
‘Yes. I have. My mind has become active.’
‘You are free from boredom?’
‘Very much’
‘My fees, please’