Summary

The story begins with the narrator announcing, "Mr Swaminathan died suddenly, as he was walking back to his flat from the Veg dining hall after dinner" (1). She explains that she had been walking behind him when she noticed that his gait suddenly changed. If, she notes, she had not been there to catch his head, he would have hit it on the cement and bled all over the pavement. She explains that she held his hand as they waited for the ambulance and that, before they took him away, he looked at her and said "Renuka," his wife's name. The narrator is unsure if he thought she was his wife or if he was simply thinking about his wife in that moment.

Malliga Homes, the narrator explains, is a new retirement community. Most of the residents moved in only two years ago. They have...