LARA'S THEME MADHURI VIJAY

That year, my mother was taking French lessons at the Alliance Française in Bangalore, and she claimed that her teacher had been impressed with her from the start.

- MADHURI VIJAY

“Madame Aurélie says I have a natural ear,” she announced one evening.

“Wonderful,” my father, an architect, said, not looking up from the plans he had spread across the dining table. Tarun, my sixteen-year-old brother, and I were at the table, too, wrapping our notebooks in brown paper. Summer was over; on Monday, we'd return to school.

I must have said something similarly vague and admiring. But Tarun said only, “Denim.”

“What?” I asked.

“De Nîmes. Means ‘from Nîmes.’ Well, technically, it’s serge de Nîmes, which was a type of cloth from there. Anyway, it’s French.”

Nobody asked how he knew this. Tarun was the brilliant one in our family, always first in his class, though he appeared never to study. I was three years younger, and my parents silently rejoiced if I brought home anything over a sixty per cent.

“That's right,” my mother said, aligning herself with Tarun as usual. “English has lots of French words. Aurélie gave us a list.”

“English has lots of Indian words, too,” my father said.

“Not as many as French,” she declared, but I saw her glance at Tarun for confirmation.

“Bungalow,” my father countered. “Catamaran. Cummerbund.”

“Toddy,” Tarun added helpfully.

“Ganja.”

“Tarun,” my father warned.

“Just saying. We have all the good ones.” Tarun tossed aside a notebook with a flourish. My father smiled and returned to his plans.

“Anyway,” my mother said uncertainly. Since I was the only one still listening, she addressed me: “Aurélie says if I keep it up, I'll become fluent. Can you imagine, Kushal? Me, fluent in French?” She giggled. “I must be crazy.”

Nobody believed that my mother would keep it up. French was just the latest in a long line of hobbies, none of which had lasted more than six months. Before French, there had been Tanjore painting, bonsai, orchids, and, for three unfortunate weeks, horseback riding.