Page 108 - Half Girlfriend

time in a year, I felt respect for myself. I decided not to be a doormat

anymore. I decided to stop moping over a rich girl who had left me. I
had had enough of Stephen’s and trying to be upper class.
You belong to Dumraon in Bihar. That is who you are, Madhav

Jha, I told myself, and that is all you will ever be and need to be.

I called my mother.
‘How are the interviews going?’ she said.

‘One company offered me a job.’
‘Who?’

‘HSBC.’
‘What do they do?’

‘Bank.’
‘They have a branch in Patna?’

I laughed, ‘No, it is an international bank. The job is in Delhi,’ I
said.

‘Oh,’ my mother said and her voice dropped. ‘You will have to be

there then.’
‘I said no.’
‘What?’ she said, surprised.

‘I didn’t want the job. My heart is not here anymore.’

‘Where is your heart?’ My mother chuckled.
London, said a voice in my head.

‘Dumraon. I’m coming back home.’
I could sense the wide smile on her face through the phone. ‘You’ll

come back to Dumraon? After finishing Stephen’s college?’ she said,
her voice bright.

‘Yes. It is my home, after all.’
‘Of course. Everyone keeps asking about you: “Where is our

prince, the rajkumar?”’
‘Please, Ma, I hope all that nonsense won’t start there.’

‘What do you mean, nonsense? You are the prince of Dumraon.
People want to do your rajyabhishek ceremony.’

‘Ma. I don’t like such traditions. Royalty is dead in India.’