"What the hell does this mean?" Vanraj hollered at her from the door of her apartment, shaking the newspaper to Anupama's face.

"Come inside and we can discuss." Anupama sounded extremely calm. That should have gotten Vanraj's alarm bells ringing but when had he ever stopped to consider anything other than what his own petty mind told him.

"Why should I? When you can behave like a shameless woman, why should I care?"

"Mr Shah, please come inside, don't create unnecessary scene." She was still speaking extremely calmly.

"Kavya, look at what she's saying," his voice turned up a few notches. "I AM..I AM..MADAM THINKS I AM CREATING A SCENE UNNECESSARILY?"

He took a deep breath while Kavya rubbed his arm to infuse some form of semblance into Vanraj. The next words he spoke, although equally angry, were less loud.

"And what about HER? The one who's shamed us in society? Everyone is gossiping about her and..."

"I believe my fiancé asked you to come inside Mr Shah, TWICE," Anuj's voice boomed from the living room. That stopped Vanraj's tirade as he and Kavya tentatively stepped inside the house.

As the two stepped into Anupama's apartment, they took in the dingy surroundings, lack of decor and sparse furnishings in the space. In the six months following the divorce and Anupama's departure from the Shah household, both Vanraj and Kavya had never bothered to visit Anupama. They had her address, Hasmukh Shah, Vanraj's father, had shared it with the family six months ago. He'd hoped that his son would do right by Anupama, take care of her needs until she was able to fend for herself, if not for the sake of his previous relationship, then at least as a gesture of humanity. Needless to say, he was sorely disappointed.

"Please take a seat," Anuj pointed to the two plastic chairs in front of him, while Anupama closed the door to the prying eyes of neighbours who'd come out to witness the earlier commotion.

Then looking at Anupama with an emotion she couldn't place he said: "Anupama, why don't you make some tea for Mr and Mrs Shah while I have a brief chat with them?"

Anupama knew what was in store for Mr and Mrs Shah. Minutes ago she'd seen Anuj deal with her landlord. As she made her way into the kitchen, desperately trying to stifle her bubbling laughter, Vanraj and Kavya looked like two deers caught between headlights.

Anuj got up, plucked the newspaper from Vanraj's hand, opened it to the article page and spread it out for all of them to see.

"I believe you had questions about this article Mr Shah." Vanraj cleared his throat to offer some sort of a lame explanation. But before he could say something, Anuj continued: "Your first question to Anupama was what does this mean?"

Just then Anupama brought two cups of tea and handed them to Vanraj and Kavya, both of who promptly put it down. They knew, with Anuj Kapadia sitting in front of them, talking to them in that "tone", nothing would go down their throat.

"Anu, would you like to answer that?"

Vanraj's eyes expanded at the familiar gesture this famous business tycoon had shown his ex-wife. While Kavya turned green with envy, Anupama nodded her head and said: "Its means that Anuj ji and I engaged."

Kavya smirked. "Anupama, before you talk about getting engaged to someone as big as Mr Kapadia, at least learn to speak proper English."

As soon as she'd said it, Kavya knew she'd stepped over the line. She saw Anuj's eyes turn to slits. Then his eyes relaxed, and he smiled. The lion had begun its hunt.

"Mrs Shah, how many languages do you speak?" he asked, picking on invisible flecks of lint on his impeccable suit.

"Just English," she stammered. "I can speak some Hindi but I'm not fluent."

Anuj sighed.

"And Mr Shah, you?"

"English, Hindi and Gujarati, although I only know to read and write English."

He then turned his attention to Anupama.

"Anu," Anuj's voice gentled as he addressed her, "how many languages can you speak?"

Anupama tried her best to keep a straight face as she answered. She didn't want to laugh and ruin the effect of what Anuj had set out to do.

"Gujarati, Hindi, Marwadi and Marathi."

"And how many of these can you read and write?"

"All of them."

Anuj raised an eyebrow challenging Kavya to refute his point. She kept quiet, her eyes lowered, fidgeting with her bracelet.

Convinced, he'd won this argument, he continued: "So Mr Shah, let's come to your second question. But to me, this one sounded more like an allegation.

"And the allegation was, how can Anupama be so shameless." Vanraj opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish a few times, but no voice came out of it. Bored with the drama unfolding in front of him, he asked again: "Anu are you married?"

Anupama shook her head indicating no.

"Are you seeing someone else?"

She said no again.

"Have you behaved in an inappropriate manner?"

She shook her head again, indicating no.

"Are your clothes in this picture indecent?" He looked at Kavya and pivoted: "Wait, let Mrs Shah answer that."

Kavya was turning a bright shade of red due to embarrassment. But Anuj was in no mood to be benevolent.

"Mrs Shah, are Anupama's clothes in this picture indecent?"

Kavya shook her head indicating no.

"So from these answers, we can surmise that Anu hasn't done anything indecent, illegal or immoral. Are you with me so far Mr Shah?"

Vanraj gulped and nodded.

"So can you please elaborate on the shameless behaviour you were talking about?"

When Vanraj chose to stay silent, Anuj continued: "And that brings us to your last problem, that of people gossiping.

"Mrs Shah, can you please tell us the definition of the word gossip? I would've asked Anu but as we just determined, English isn't her strength."

Kavya had the decency to look chastised. She fished out her cellphone from her purse and googled the definition for the word.

"Casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true," she mumbled under her breath.

"What did you say, Mrs Shah, I couldn't catch the whole thing. Could you please repeat yourself and translate for Anu's sake?"

She did, albeit grudgingly.

"Thank you, Mrs Shah, you're very kind." His demeanour was smiling and his words were polite. But Kavya knew that both she and Vanraj were in trouble, very deep trouble.

Turning his attention to Vanraj, Anuj declared his intention.

"Anu and I will be announcing our engagement date at a press conference next week. Once the date is announced, this news will cease to be gossip. Because according to the definition Mrs Shah just read out, truth cannot be construed as gossip."

Vanraj looked at him flabbergasted, while Kavya looked at Anupama with pure unadulterated envy.

"Thank you for stopping by, Mr and Mrs Shah."

The indication was clear. Anuj had politely asked them to get out. They quietly picked up their things and left.

*****

Twenty minutes and two teas later, Anuj got up to make his way back.

"Anuj ji, can I ask question?"

He nodded.

"I didn't say anything to you before I opened door. Then how did you know my answer?"

He smiled.

"Because you didn't say anything to me AND you opened the door. If your answer had been different, either you would've said something to me, or not opened the door."

Anupama was touched. Not only had Anuj defended her in front of Vanraj and Kavya but he'd understood what was going on in her mind without her having to explain it.

She thought about what she'd agreed to do while waving him goodbye. She didn't know where this path would lead. But she'd also walked the other path and had been belittled and eventually left to fend for herself.

At least this time, she could hold herself responsible for whatever happened in her life. At least this time, she would be happy.

She walked up to her Kanhaji. Sitting on her knees in front of him, she prayed: "Dhyaan raakh jo."