Once Shanta bai and Subhash Thakur were in his spacious shower (as they had been yesterday morning) and Shanta bai was gratefully luxuriating in the imported soaps and shampoos that her master allowed her to use, Subhash asked her about her to-be-daughter-in-law and her family.

Shanta bai told him (as she contentedly massaged her thigh length long hair with shampoo) that Champa's (her to-be-daughter-in-law) mother (Vaishali) and her father (Ravi) worked in a textile mill outside Delhi. Champa was their eldest child (age 18) and they had a younger daughter Sonal (age 14) as well. They were living hand to mouth as was the common nature of their lower class and economic circumstances. Ravi was a distant family friend of Mangesh (Shanta's husband) and the marriage had been arranged after one meeting between Champa and Rajpal (Shanta's son).