Page 136 - Leadership in the Indian Army

He placed it under his leg. "There. That's better."

Laila remembered the first time he'd shown her his stump. She'd been

six. With one finger, she had poked the taut.

shiny skin just below his left knee. Her finger had found little hard
lumps there, and Tariq had told her they were spurs of bone that

sometimes grew after an amputation. She'd asked him if his stump hurt,

and he said it got sore at the end of the day, when it swelled and didn't
fit the prosthesis like it was supposed to, like a finger in a thimble. And

sometimes it gets rubbed Especially when it's hot. Then I get rashes and
blisters, but my mother has creams that help. It's not so bad.

Laila had burst into tears.

What are you crying for? He'd strapped his leg back on. You asked to

see it, you giryanok, you crybaby! If I'd known you were going to bawl, I

wouldn 'i have shown you.

"A stamp," he said.

"What?"

"The riddle. The answer is a stamp. We should go to the zoo after

lunch." "You knew that one. Did you?" "Absolutely not."

"You're a cheat."

"And you're envious." "Of what?"

"My masculine smarts."