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

old financial reports and tied with a thick cotton string. A man in an old banian
and checked lungi is frying little swabs of besan that swell and rise up to the
surface, forming thick long strips of fafda gaanthiya. Colourful heaps: yellow,
red, white and green of mithais surround him and he conforms to the image of
the maithaiwallah sketched in school art books. Here the air is electrified, chaotic,
disturbed — much different from the coffee smells of Kings circle. Orders fly,
“Pav kilo jalebi, gulabjamun aadha karlo,” short bursts of information are
answered with mithais wrapped in paper bundles, thrown into the hands of the
customers; money is passed from one hand to another till it reached the
mithaiwallah. The air is thick with sweet smells. Bhaveshbhai stands at the
periphery of this din, looking, wondering how he should move in. His eyes
surveys the crowd, shaped like a crescent moon, thick and noisy in the middle,
tapering off at the edges. Searching for space, Bhaveshbhai stands there for a
while, hesitating. Then he makes for the quietest corner where the crowd is the
thinnest and stands next to a man with henna‐dyed hair. He too joins the
clamouring, but his position offers him the least advantage of being heard and
replied to. After repeated cries, the mithaiwallah turns their way, and for a
moment Bhaveshbhai thinks he has been heard but the mithaiwallah only
communicates the henna‐head’s order to the little boy frying the jalebi in the
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