”“Was it tough?”Ed was quiet for a moment as he thought about it. He nodded slightly, “It was a little tougher than I thought it would be. It ...asn’t that I was an alcoholic. I guess drinking was more of a habit.”John nodded as he said, “I understand. I had the same problem when I quit drinking.”Ed looked very surprised to hear that. He had assumed that John had never had a tough day in his life. He asked, “You used to drink?”“Oh, yes. I quit drinking the night my brother wrapped his car around. She slid the beer across to me, giving me her pretty smile, and took a sip of her own drink. “Where are you from?” I said to Eva, across the table.“Sydney,” she replied, “but my parents are from the Czech Republic. They came here before I was born. My dad still talks about Czechoslovakia.”“So, Beresova’s a Czech name?” I asked. Eva nodded, and smiled at Monique, saying, “And Monique here is from Viet-namatta,” using a nickname for the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, with its high population. Mai kahyu ke “hun jyare tamne leva aayo e tym tame koi manas ne paisa aapta hata e kon hatu??”.Ee bau j ghabrayi gayi ane jhuthu boli gayi ke e emni company ma kaam kare che ane ena husband e ene paisa aapvana kahya ta. Hun samjhi gayo ke ee jhuthu bole che vaat kaik biji che. Mai kahyu “wahh aunty saaru thayu toh toh coz mai tame ene paisa aapya eno photo lidho che jena thi tamari paase uncle ne batava proof rehse ke tame ene paisa aapya ta”.Ee have vadhare ghabrayi gayi ane kehva laagi “na na. Soon I became her favourite and we spoke so freely. It all started one day, when I went to tuition I was late by 30 minutes only Deepa was there as her mother had gone to her relative’s house and will be back by 9 PM. We sat for the lessons and I was given a problem to solve. The problem was easy but I made a very stupid mistake. She used to pinch me at times to correct me when I was wrong. She pinched me on my lap and corrected my mistake. I was wrong again and she pinched me again, this time.