Gossip

When I moved into my company accommodation in Jorbagh, Delhi, a friend helped, instructing the movers where to keep what and generally running things. The neighbors assumed that she was my wife, but later noticed that I stayed alone, and she was among my occasional visitors, sometimes alone and sometimes with others.

As she was an avid cyclist, she sometimes stayed overnight in order to leave very early for a ride that started nearby. She had planned this earlier and my guestroom was kept ready for her.

This was duly noted by the neighbours and speculated upon

My wife used to visit Delhi every month for meetings in the ministry  , and being a workaholic, always took the last flight in, stayed overnight and left in the morning for her meeting, returning to the airport from the meeting. Occasionally, if the meeting was on a Friday or Monday, she would spend the weekend with me.

The neighbors saw that another lady comes in a government car at night and leaves in the morning, occasionally staying in the weekend and my reputation became even more interesting.

Then one weekend while my wife was staying my friend dropped in.

Later we all went out for dinner together.

Now my respect among the neighbors reached a new high.

Being civilized people they couldn’t quiz me, but quizzed my driver and cook, which is how I came to know of this intense curiosity about my personal life.

But during the occasional neighborhood get togethers , I thoroughly enjoyed their oblique questions and remained enigmatic, giving the them some vicarious excitement outside the TV serials.