Page 3 - It's in the DNA_Neat

Chapter 1: In the Car

I woke up with a start. We were at the tollbooth, entering Delhi. The cacophony of
blaring horns and the calls of hawkers weaving between cars had woken me up.
We are on the way back from the mountains where Dadaji stays alone.

Oh! Dadaji is dozing next to me, in the rear seat of the car. Papa is driving and

Mamma is checking something on her tab. They are talking in hushed tones,
letting us sleep off yesterday’s weariness.

Trips to Dadaji’s cabin in the lush green mountains are usually happy times. But the
return trip is always muted. Mamma planning how to deal with the morning chores
and Papa humming a tune, a soft melodious gadwali song, and me? I like to day-
dream in the backseat about staying back with Dadaji in his cabin in the mountains.

But this trip is different. In the first place, it was sudden. Dadaji called papa as we
were having dinner and since we were on the speaker phone, I heard the conver-
sation-the words and the sad, slightly weary tone. It seems Papa was planning to

bring Dadaji to stay with us. But Dadaji wanted to stay in his cabin as long as he
could manage on his own. With each trip we could see, he was getting worse.