HARD STAINS Chap-1 Gayatri found it surprising. The stain was hard, and refused to go off the sticky dark bottom of the copper utensil. It was as if it was the scrub in her hand, which was feverish and tired, and not she, really. Sitamaa should have left some food cooking in the vessel for more than the reasonable length of time yesterday, and hence ended up cooking some stain, instead of whatever she had in mind when she had started out. The inevitable traces of the crime were still found clinging