The Call · The Quiet Exam · Pulse Beat
His father rang before he could ring first. "Dev." The voice was calm, which was worse. Mr Malhotra was a civil engineer in Pune, a precise, undemonstrative man who had himself been a topper at a…
His father rang before he could ring first.
"Dev." The voice was calm, which was worse. Mr Malhotra was a civil engineer in Pune, a precise, undemonstrative man who had himself been a topper at a famous college and expected the same of his son without ever saying it. "I've seen the result. Come home."
"Papa, I..."
"There are options. There are always options." A pause. "We'll discuss it when you're here."
"I could take the drop year. Another attempt. I know where I went wrong."
"Come home first." And then, so quietly that Dev almost missed it: "It is not the end of the world."
He put down the phone. It was the first time his father had said anything like it, and he found that instead of comfort he felt something like panic. For five years the plan had been the shape of his life. If it was not the end of the world, what was it? What did he want?
He did not know. He had never been asked.