24
'Oh, I love this place,’ she said.‘Look at the balcony.’
‘Stop it. If you praise it so much, he will never give us a good
price,’ I said.
We were in an apartment close to Dak Bungalow Road in
Indiranagar, an upscale and relatively quiet neighbourhood in noisy
Patna.
After viewing many apartments smaller than the servant quarters of
100, Aurangzeb Road, we had finally stumbled upon the right one. It
was a colonial apartment building with twelve-foot high ceilings. It
had old teak windows and doors. Both the bedrooms had a sunny
balcony facing a park. There was a spacious kitchen with a loft for
storage. I knew Riya would take this place.
‘Shhh,’ she said and placed a finger on her lips.
‘Twenty thousand,’ the broker said, probably sensing our keenness.
‘So much? Have you had bhaang?’ I said.
‘It is the safest area in Patna. Madam is staying alone. And look at
the balconies,’ the broker said.
‘True, it is lovely,’ Riya said dreamily.
I glared at her. She placed a hand on her mouth, as if to say ‘oops’.
‘Fifteen,’ I said.
‘This is a gora flat, sir. Foreigners like these old places. I am
showing it to a firangi couple later today,’ the broker said.
‘We will take it. Done. Twenty,’ Riya said.
I shrugged at Riya. She smiled at me. Rich kids think money grows
like the rice in the fields of Dumraon.
- ‘This is gorgeous,’ Riya said. She took out her mobile phone and
started to take pictures.
We had come to Gol Ghar, a giant round planetarium-shaped dome
located opposite Gandhi Maidan. It had been built in 1784 as a granary
when the British wanted a place to store grain to be used in times of