Proud Mothers

Mrs. Bhatti and Mrs. Varma bump into each other while they wait at a bus stand. Pratima says her son Praveen finished a master's in computer science, got a promotion last year, and is now the boss of 15 people. Mrs. Varma says her son Krishna is working on a PhD in mechanical engineering, and that Oxford University has already offered him a job he will join from the very next semester.

The boasts don't stay put. She says she has five grandchildren, then six, and all of them are sons. Mrs. Bhatti says Praveen was offered that same Oxford job and turned it down, because he didn't want to live far from his mother.

Then the sons show up. Krishna steps out of an auto-rickshaw, says the vada pav is all finished, and tells his mother to add booze to the list. Praveen says his shift ends at 9 and that he'll come by for rum. The two women stand there, humiliated.