“What about Mummy’s saris?” I ask my father after thirty years

Fiction

“Tsk…later, eat these first.” Daddy points to piping hot samosas. ‘Got them specially for
you.’
It’s been thirty years. He doesn’t know I’ve turned gluten free.
I ask again.
“We must’ve given them to the maids or something…it’s been thirty years.”
“Not even one?”
“What use is hoarding rubbish? Tsk.”
It’s been thirty years and I remember how Mummy’s wine-red Banarasi silk, her light-as-air-
pineapple-yellow chiffon with silver gota patti and her favourite moong-green crêpe de chine
made me feel when I wrapped me in them, secretly—as a child, as a teenager. Back when this
was home.
Daddy’s new wife offers me chutney.