The Pepper Papers
Excerpts from:
Chapter Four in which Kalpa visits a past unknown to her, triggered by pepper allergy
(Draft – unedited)
A bearded, tall young man clad in shorts holding two large plates of Indian sweets in his hands came into the hall from the back of the apartment looking bewildered as the noise of the clapping grew in volume and was lingering on. He observed they were all cheering him but appeared clueless as to what could have triggered that.
Oh, Kalpa, welcome, welcome to you. I was expecting you to be the first person to arrive.
Vedi hugged Kalpa and gently kissed her on her cheeks. He turned around and extended his hand towards Father Muri.
Thank you Father yet to be introduced. It is indeed nice of you to offer your services for a non-Catholic wedding and that too, even without meeting the bride or bridegroom before. Have you flown from India with the sole purpose of officiating for this ceremony at Muzaffar’s request or are you serving the church here in England and would like to extend your service offering for a nominal fee that may go for a local charity? If it is a special visit from abroad, I’m sorry I can’t reimburse your flight expenses and that for accommodation here; getting along with a shoestring budget is tough, you may agree.
Father Muri smiled. He quickly rehearsed in his mind his response to this young man making a mental note of words which should be pronounced with additional care to remove the Malayali nasal twang and intonation. Having satisfied himself that he could deliver the response now as he would like it to sound , he cleared his throat. As his benign countenance lit up with the depth of the message of the response to be, the lanky youth moved away greeting a girl with bifocals who was helping herself to a not too small bar of chocolate and a large piece of a porous looking golden yellowish hued Indian sweet the name of which Father Muri was happy to recollect as Mysorepak, a strange name born out of the conjunction of the name of a city in South India and that of the most friendly neighbour of that country.