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lie down on the terrace and stare at the stars above and wonder if maybe Vidura was looking at the exact same stars at the exact same time. Maybe through the stars and moon she could reach out to him and ask him to come back home.
    She wondered if he’d left because of her. Had he been so repulsed by her refusal to go to her husband’s house that he had left Tella Meda? She could confide in no one about how she felt, how remorse and guilt at being the cause of Vidura’s departure ate at her. If Chetana was upset, she didn’t show it, and Kokila was coming to believe that Chetana wasn’t upset or even disturbed anymore. Chetana seemed to have gotten over Vidura’s leaving very quickly. When once Kokila mentioned that Chetana didn’t seem to miss Vidura, Chetana serenely said, “Those who are gone are gone. I have to live my life now. My mother left—you don’t see me cry about that, do you? And she was probably a whole lot more important to me than Vidura.”
    Kokila had experienced similar losses when her parents died, but this was different. They had died, their bodies had been burned, there had been closure. Vidura had left a raw open wound that didn’t heal and Kokila feared it never would. Kokila stopped going to the beach in the evenings with Charvi. She couldn’t bear to be there without Vidura. As it started to become obvious that Vidura would never come back, something within Kokila shriveled; laughter, which used to come easily, wouldn’t come at all. She felt older and seemed to have little interest in the idle times and nonsense of her old life.
    To pass the time, Kokila started doing more chores at Tella Meda. Everyone except Charvi did their own washing; Subhadra did Charvi’s and the other common linens. Kokila took over that responsibility. She would wash and dry and iron everything accordingly, nagging Chetana to help.
    She even started helping Subhadra in the kitchen and coaxed Chetana to do the same. Cooking three meals a day for the people who lived in the ashram plus the inevitable guests and devotees who came unannounced was a full-time job and Subhadra welcomed their help in chopping vegetables and serving the food.
    Chetana woke up late each morning but Kokila made it a point to be up early and do the morning puja with Charvi. Her faith in Lord Venkateshwara Swami had increased since Vidura ran away. She started to believe that everything had a divine reason and everything happened for one’s own good. It was the only way she could cope with Vidura’s desertion.
    Breakfast was never an elaborate affair, as Subhadra just steamed idlis and served them with leftover sambhar and coconut chutney. Sometimes she would make lemon rice, curd rice, or tamarind rice with rice left over from the previous night’s dinner.
    Kokila and Chetana would help clean the dishes after breakfast and then start cleaning the verandah. Clothes had to be washed every other day, and Chetana helped, but reluctantly.
    “Once I get married, I’m going to get a maid to do all this work for me,” Chetana would say.
    Then they would help Subhadra prepare lunch, do the dishes, and then repeat the process again for dinner. In the middle they would help clean the rooms and the terrace and also work in the garden with Narayan Garu, who loved the plants as if they were his own children. The small vegetable garden that Narayan Garu tended produced tomatoes, peas, carrots, coriander, mint, and various gourds. It was a lifesaver for Tella Meda, especially on the many days when there was no money to buy vegetables and Subhadra would have had to serve just rice and pickle if it hadn’t been for Narayan Garu’s vegetables.
    Despite all their work, Chetana and Kokila still managed to find free time. Gradually they returned to their habits of spending many an afternoon gossiping, playing cards, reading Telugu film magazines, and going for matinees at the cinema when they could get money from Subhadra. Since neither Kokila nor