His Mother's Reaction · The Quiet Exam · Pulse Beat
She did not say anything for a very long time. Sunita Malhotra stood in the kitchen with a wooden spoon in her hand, reading the letter over his shoulder. She read it twice. Then she put the spoon…
She did not say anything for a very long time.
Sunita Malhotra stood in the kitchen with a wooden spoon in her hand, reading the letter over his shoulder. She read it twice. Then she put the spoon down, and went into the next room, and he heard her, quite distinctly, blow her nose.
She came back a few minutes later with her face composed. "Well," she said, "I will have to learn what an astrophysicist is."
"It's someone who studies stars, Amma."
"I know what stars are." She took his face in both hands. "I have been so afraid, these ten months. I thought we had broken you."
"You didn't break me."
"I thought we had." Her eyes were wet. "I have been going to the temple every morning, praying you would be happy. And I didn't know what to pray for. Rank? A college? I just wanted you to stop looking like you were drowning." She kissed his forehead. "You don't look like that any more."
He put his arms round her. She smelled of cardamom and soap and every home he had ever had. "No," he said. "I don't."