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

After the play, we moved outside to the Prithvi restaurant and sat on the
wooden benches. We mutually agreed that we liked the play, and then bit‐by‐bit
it grew really silent. I could hear bits of conversations from people sitting on
other tables discussing the play, the actors, children’s vacations, colon cancer,
ATM cards and reality shows. We looked around — Rohanʹs eyes were fixed at
something behind me, and since I couldnʹt immediately think of something to
say, I began plucking the petals of a rose bud kept on the table. I was relieved to
see the waiter and I told him some Iris coffee while Rohan made up his mind,
and Rohan looked up a the waiter and smirked, then corrected me,
“What she means is IriSH coffee, you have that donʹt you?”
And I looked at the rose on the table and how small it really looked now, with all
its petals plucked. And I thought of that girl on the station. And I thought that
maybe itʹs only today I learnt to say Irish coffee, my tongue touching the palette,
as I said the SH, breath exhaling out and maybe I just learnt yesterday that the s
in rendezvous is silent and that a Flame of the Forest is different than a
Gulmohur, as a Sitar from a Veena, as Zeenat Aman from Parveen Babi. But if I
knew this before, would Rohan have treated me differently? Would the lady in
the suit have listened to my suggestions?
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