Chapter 8: The Red Sticker

The phone call had come sixteen days later, as Kaurav sat at lunch in Bangabhavan, Delhi. On the television screen above their table, a prominent news channel was broadcasting the ruling party's candidate list for the Lok Sabha elections. He watched the name appear: Aparna Ghosh, candidate for a North Bengal constituency, member of the Chief Minister's inner circle.

He had already heard this news the night before, from Roni-da on the bus to Mysore. But seeing it officially announced gave it a different weight, a finality that made him remember things he had tried to forget.

Two of the people at that Delhi lunch table would later join the ruling party officially, though they denied it when asked. When Subrata Bose, then Education Minister, suggested they all join Aparna Ghosh's campaign, everyone agreed with the enthusiasm of people who sensed opportunity.

By then, another