I stared at him. He stared back at me.

“What are you looking at?” I asked him.

He didn’t reply. He simply kept his stare firmly fixed on my balding head.

“Yeah I know I am balding. Don’t rub it in.” I warned him.

He laughed.

“Do you like Chennai?” I was persistent. No response from him.

“Well, we are still in the airport. We haven’t actually stepped into the real Chennai. Have we?” Vinita gestured me towards the baggage claim area.

I walked away.

Calvin had always been a cheerful kid. He would sport a mischievous smile on his face and play with his hands and his legs. When it was time to feed, he would cry a little. In fact our neighbors in Hyderabad had complained multiple times – “Your kid is not crying at all. Do you have a soundproof room?”

Of course Calvin is not his real name. But in the three months since he became an actual entity in this world, I had studied him so much that I knew he would one day be a Calvin. So I nicknamed him Calvin.

It was his first trip to Chennai. He didn’t know it of course. He was busy looking at all the vinyl hoardings in the airport.

“Get in” I said and kept the car door open for him.

He got in, took one long look at me and started crying.

“Feeding time?” I asked Vinita. She shook her head. “He has just been fed.”

The crying stopped suddenly. I stopped the car and looked back. He was probably waiting for the cue. He started again with double the intensity now. I didn’t have to use the car horn at all.

So for the next thirty five minutes the residents of Guindy, High Higness The Governor of Tamil Nadu, the software engineers of TidelPark – everyone stopped minding their business and paid attention to a Green Santro speeding towards Thiruvanmiyur.

“Give me a break” I shouted at him. Vinita gave me a harsh look. “Well, he never cried like this in Hyderabad. There must be something wrong with Chennai.”

“Yeah right.”

For the next one and a half day – He stopped crying only when he slept or during feeding time. Our neighbors in Chennai complained. “You kid is such a cry baby. Take him to a doctor. Will ya? Get an AC and soundproof your room.”

When I woke up at 4 in the morning to find an exasperated Vinita trying to calm down Calvin, I knew what I had to do.

At ten in the morning, I stopped the car in the airport, grabbed Calvin in one hand and rushed to the check-in counter. The moment I stepped into the airport, the sadness had disappeared. He was smiling cheerfully at the incredibly beautiful airline staff.

“Take care” Vinita told me, “We will attempt this again after the sixth month.”

I nodded.

Two hours later she called me from Hyderabad – “He is as cool as a cucumber. People here are actually refusing to buy our story.”

I smiled. Perhaps it would forever remain as an unsolved mystery.