Them Grandmothers!

"Who's in the kitchen?" My Grandmother is in bed for her post breakfast siesta.
"No one," I say, in a voice louder than deferential.
"Who?"
"No one," I say still louder.
"Tell her to wash the tava with care."
"She's not in the kitchen".
"Then who is there?"
"No one is."
Silence. That the kitchen is empty seems to have registered. I can finally lie down and laze around.
A few minutes later, "has the milk come?" she asks.
"No it hasn't."
"Did he leave the bill?"
"He hasn't come."
"Then who got the milk?"
"The milk hasn't come."
There is silence again, but there is a vague pertuberance that suggests conversation is about to start again.
"You're leaving for Delhi today?"
"Haan ji"
"Have you got your admissions?"
"Ji "
"So when will you come to know?"
"Know what?"
"About your admission?"
"I already have an admission."
"Where?"
"In college, doing Masters there."
"When will they tell you?"
"They have already told me, I've got an admission."
"But you said you haven't got a place?"
"I said I hadn't got a place to stay."
"But then where will you stay?"
"I don't know, Naniji. I haven't found a place yet."
"Aren't they giving you a place in college?"
"No, they are not."
Another break, the most restful of all the pauses till now. I'm waiting for conversation to begin, but there is silence. Conversation is not going to begin, it seems. The delirium induced by an effort to sleep when one is not sleepy begins to set in.
"Beta just see if I've put the fan off?"
Paulo Coelho was right. See the signs in your life. This one has just said that there is no sleep to be got at this time today.