Miss New India

It was Parvati Banerji who called Anjali with the news that she had been admitted to CCI's two-week cram course and that she was expected at eight o'clock in the morning of the following Monday for the first class, which would be held in Reach for the Galaxy 3A, the apartment adjoining Usha's residence.

'Usha usually runs the accelerated program, but I'm pinch-hitting for her this session.' Parvati went on to explain that Usha's elderly mother had undergone complicated surgery to repair a heart valve, and had suffered a post-op stroke. 'Severe deficit, I'm afraid.' There was no predicting when Usha would return full-time to CCI.

'Pinch-hitting?' Was that a form of Eve-teasing?

Parvati laughed. 'Don't sweat it. Our course includes an intensive culture-familiarization unit.' She made arrangements for the CCI minivan, which ferried students to and from the institute, to pick Anjali up in front of Bagehot House at 5 A.M. on Monday. 'The gate's still standing, isn't it? Or have hoodlums carried it away to sell as scrap iron?'

'Not to worry, please. I'll be ready for shuttle bus by five minutes to five.'

So her life, her real life, would begin (again) in six more days.

She was determined not to be overwhelmed by fellow students at CCI as she had been by call-center employees at Barista her first morning in Bangalore. To give herself an edge, Anjali went to bed early that night. She needed rest; she needed not just sleep but dream-free sleep. Banish the ghosts and night monsters. But she couldn't keep Baba away. He stormed into the room, screaming, 'You're dead to me!' She scrunched her eyes shut and whispered, 'You're dead to me too. Go haunt the 'Perfect Jamai Candidate' instead. He killed us both and got away.' Baba melted into Subodh Mitra, and Subodh Mitra pulled her to a sitting position on the bed and, morphing into Ali, dirty-danced around her to a Bollywood soundtrack.

SOMETIME THAT NIGHT Husseina rattled the beaded curtain to Anjali's makeshift room, startling her out of bed. She'd been deep in an anxiety dream, and she wasn't certain she was actually awake. Husseina pressed a painted fingernail to her full lips and motioned for Anjali to follow her down the hall to her room, which, according to Tookie, had been the bridal chamber in which Minnie the blushing bride had yielded to the dashing, retired army officer Maxie.

A half-packed overnight case lay open on the four-poster bed. 'I believe in traveling light,' Husseina announced, smiling. 'I'm leaving tonight. I'm so outta here, I'm already gone.'

I'm awake, Anjali thought. This is happening. A dump? But that was unthinkable; Queen Husseina was not subject to the fate of commoners like Mira of Mangalore or Anjali of Gauripur. 'Going home? Why?'

Husseina took in Anjali's look of shock and broke into a laugh that ended in a coughing fit. 'Home to Hyderabad? What exactly is my home?' She flung open the doors of her almirah and pulled out the dresser drawers. Opulence! What was it like to be so rich? Anjali wondered, coveting Husseina's clothes, shoes, jewelry, stacks of wispy lingerie. She felt Husseina's arm slip around her shoulder and smelled Husseina's brand of sandalwood soap. She gave a squeeze, then let go. 'They'll look even better on you, Anjali.'

Of all the questions she had, Anjali could only ask, 'Why?' Meaning, why are you torturing me with this display of all the stuff you own?

'Why am I leaving, or why am I giving all of this to you?' She tugged a slinky silk kameez off its hanger. 'It's just a little trade, Anjali. My clothes for your clothes. It's a very good deal for you. It's something girlfriends do all the time, isn't it? Your jeans and T-shirts for all this. I'll throw in some underwear too.' She scrunched the kameez into a ball and lobbed it into the open suitcase.

'But my things aren't even clean.' Why are you doing this? But as in a dream, the words wouldn't come out.

'So? Bobby wants me to wear jeans tonight. Did I ever tell you about Bobby?'

'You're engaged to a cousin in London,' said Anjali. 'At least that's what you keep saying.'

'Bobby is my fiance.'

'He's in Bangalore?'

'Actually he's not my fiance. We've been married for seven years. He flew in from Bradford last week. He's so British, I barely understand him.'

Bradford dimmed the luster of Husseina the Mysterious. Married seven years? But she's my age! This was dream logic.

Husseina flopped on the bed beside the suitcase. 'I haven't been entirely honest with everybody. Actually, I've never been partially honest with anybody. But an air of mystery can be useful in a town like Bangalore, can't it? The truth is always more shocking than lies, isn't it?'

Now who was babbling? But Husseina was talking into a vacuum, not expecting answers. 'I've noticed,' she continued, 'you have a touch of mystery about you.'

Guile, yes; mystery, absolutely not. 'I wouldn't know the first thing about acting mysterious,' Anjali mumbled, to which Husseina merely cocked her head and retorted, 'Perfect! Appearing innocent is the first step.'

Anjali flashed on something Peter had said. Innocence and blindness, something about them, but she couldn't keep them straight.

Husseina finished packing a toiletry kit and threw it into the suitcase. Then she lifted a Gucci purse off the topmost shelf of the almirah and fanned out a fistful of passports. 'My father does favors,' she said. 'People give him things, like free identities. What should I be tonight? American? No, too risky. Canadian? Too cold. Qatari, Aussie, Kiwi, Pakistani, Indian… what-oh-what does poor little Husseina want to be? Where do I want to go? I've got all the damned fucking choices in the world. I've got a million of them.' She gestured at Minnie's posters of bland British children playing with pets. 'I'm like those fucking little girls up there on the wall. Instead of kittens, I've got passports. That's all I've got.'

Tookie, not Husseina, was known for foul language and cursing. Anjali rushed down the hall to her room, plucked her jeans from the clothes tree and her T-shirts and underwear from the hamper, and then hurried back. Husseina had already stripped down to her bra and panties. 'Thanks,' she said, 'just leave them on the bed. You can pick up your loot tomorrow.'

Dream logic or not, she was beginning to put things together. Husseina had acted strange the night of the gala. She'd been out on the porch, with her cell phone. And she'd been angry, difficult at breakfast. Husseina's careful facade was chipping.

'Did you give Minnie a month's notice?'

'Fuck the bitch! End of one chapter.'

'What should I tell Tookie and Sunita?'

'Tell Tookie anything you want. Be careful with Sunita-she's not as innocent as she seems.' Then Husseina launched into a monologue. 'I'll go out as an Indian tonight. Maybe I'll be an American tomorrow-that might be fun. Fake identities are very easy when your whole life's been one big fucking fake.' She read through the list of Panzer Delight cities before slipping the T-shirt on. 'Been there, done that, except maybe Bratislava. Good to know there's still something worth living for.' She was shapelier than Anjali. Then the jeans; there too, tighter and less boyish. She tucked her hair under Anjali's most colorful scarf, talking all the while.

'You want to hear something funny? I never told anyone this. When I was in the ninth grade at the American School in Dubai, I got a phone call from my father to go to the airport, pick up a ticket, and fly back to Hyderabad right away. I thought someone had died! When I landed, he showed me a picture and said, 'This is my auntie's grandson. They call him Bobby. He is a good boy, with a scholarship to London. What do you think of him?' As if anyone cared a fig! His next words were 'You will be marrying him tomorrow.' I was only thirteen, and I had a paper due on Hawthorne and I wondered if getting married could be an excuse to pass in the paper late. Of course I couldn't mention it, but no one would believe it anyway. Truth is always more shocking than lies, isn't it? The next morning my new husband left for England and I went back to the ninth grade and no one knew I was married. My husband didn't write to me at school. He didn't write me, period.'

None of this made any sense to Anjali. Even Husseina's tone confused her. She was like a spinning top. There was an edge to every word she spat out, as though the next one might come out in a scream.

The mysteries of Hyderabad, explained but not comprehended. Panzer Delight, with all its umlauts, would be out the door and heading back to Europe. And she, Anjali Bose, ghost of Gauripur, would inherit a closet full of expensive silks. No one had ever confided in her, except maybe Peter and Ali. She owed Husseina something