SuitableBoy excerpt

From A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth From the chapter  A couple glide down-river in a boat. A mother hears that mischief is afloat. The next time Lata saw Kabir, he was looking the very opposite of tense and subdued. She was walking across the campus with a book and a file under her arm when she saw him and another student, both wearing cricket clothes, sauntering along the path that lead to the sports fields. Kabir was casually swinging the bat as he walked and the two of them appeared to be engaged in relaxed and occasional conversation. Lata was too far behind them to make out anything of what they were saying. Suddenly Kabir leaned his head back and burst out laughing. He looked so handsome in the morning light and his laughter was so open-hearted and free from tension that Lata, who had been about to turn towards the library, found herself continuing to follow him. She was astonished by this, but didn't rebuke herself. 'Well, why shouldn't I?' she thought. 'Since h's approaches me three times already, I don't see why I shouldn't follow him for once. But I thought the cricket season was over. I didn't know there was a match on in the middle of exams.' - - -     Lata did not know how long she sat there, but it must have been more than half an hour. The sound of bat on ball, the rustle of slight breeze in the bamboo, the twittering of a few sparrows, the calls of a couple of mynahs, and, above all, the sound of the young man's easy laughter and indistinct conversation all combined to make her almost oblivious of herself. It was quite a while before she came to. I'm behaving like a fascinated gopi, she thought. Soon, instead of feeling jealous of Krishna's flute, I'll start envying Kabir's bat! She smiled at the thought, then got up, brushed a few dries leaves from her salwaar-kameez, and - still unnoticed - walked back the way she had come. 

© Vikram Seth