When no one was looking, she found herself sitting on a stone bench beneath a cherry blossom tree, a book resting in her lap. Her face broke into a smile. 

‘Ve Din’ by Nirmal Verma. 

It was an old copy. She opened the book and ran her palm across the page, feeling the texture and the traces of a handwritten message:

‘उनके लिए जिन्हें शब्दों की जादूगरी पर यक़ीन है…’

(For those who believe in the magic of words.)

She leafed through the pages and paused on a paragraph.

‘—पुरानी लिखी हुई कॉपी के बीच एक अनल...