and we are finally somewhat friends. we dined at theirs. he showed me pics from when he was young, mustachioed. she fed us warmly, like we were her kids. their son licked the palm of his right hand clean when eating and then reached out with his fingers for some honeydew she cut for all of us; she scolded and protested in tamil, and the two of us smiled and helped ourselves to the fruit (which she had cut despite my "please don't bother" because he chose unthinking when she gave him options to choose from). their regular house help had gone off for a month and the woman helping left soon after dinner was served, but dirty dishes kept disappearing as if someone was washing them in between bits of our conversation. she didn't know where bones should be thrown when we were searching for their bin, and I forked them into her lil compost bin confirming it was compost material. he barked instructions at me to get the top right drawer and some spoons from it. I couldn't figure how it opened so I kept opening everything else around it. later he seemed annoyed when I wanted a serving spoon for something that didn't have one in it; that made me smile inwardly. they invited us over because we had some crisis level water problems. I really felt for her and warmed to her. they argued with each other over the role of the Supreme Court and the CJI in the institutions and politics of these times, even though they all have the same political inclinations. I felt like I hadn't learned how to swim in those waters, and both of us smiled to each other like we knew their weaknesses and stared from one of their faces to another. we realised they barely knew the shops in the market between our houses or they barely ate outside food. he flinched a lil and smiled and mumbled in embarrassment when i looked at him directly and complained against his distaste for a netflix series i thought was very good. I felt her eyes on me and him then, wondering how much we knew each other. I was meeting her after about 5-6 years. she is a morning person, always rushing from one thing to another, taking care of others more than herself, dislikes exercise other than swimming, is a doting mother, and has a caring soft spoken manner. other than being an economist and writer I admire. he is a lil impatient, not always aware of how his words might hurt or possibly believing that honesty is more important and the casualties worth it, trying incessantly to make sense of things, curious, and willing to be corrected. both have a frankness about them, simplicity, a sense of humor, and an awareness of the fragility of things. both are precious. my mind has been replaying words said and the expressions on their faces this whole week, sometimes also continuing conversations beyond where they were interrupted by failings of memory or thought, keeping me awake sometimes.