Chapter 2: Plant response to elevated CO2 - DRUM - University of ...

Kapur, ought to be respected. After all, Mrs. Kapur watched ‘Sanjivanee’
regularly on Tuesday prime time nights. She knew all about the medical world.
Mrs. Mehta was aware of this and wanted it to be so. Away from her
patients, away from the approval of her children, at this stage of her life, Mrs.
Mehta needed validation, now even if it came from Mrs. Kapur. If she marvelled
her strength and energy, she didn’t admit it, not even to herself because then the
equations would change, the balance of power would tilt. Mrs. Mehta and Mrs.
Kapur went together to all the places where their husbands refused to
accompany: a new shopping complex in town, the handloom exhibitions at
Bandra Kurla complex, crockery sales, an upcoming theater festival and book
readings since Mrs. Kapur was the only one who had the patience to stop every
now and then to rest along with Mrs. Mehta, on chairs in stores, against cars in
the streets and arrive early enough to book readings to get the chairs.
The rain had stopped and the afternoon sunrays slanted in through the
terrace windows to bounce off the steel box that Mrs. Kapur placed on the glass
tabletop. She opened it with trepidation. She hoped her neighbour liked it. She
had cut the koparapak in thirty‐one pieces, and decorated it with plastic
alphabets, that she had saved since her son Vinay’s 10th Birthday. She hadn’t
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