She eats alone these days. Stands at the kitchen counter and eats, staring unseeingly at the cupboards. Or the water filter. Or even the sink. It's the shortest distance from oven to plate, to mouth, to plate, to sink. Besides it's intolerable sitting in an empty room and staring into space and eating. Which reminds her of the women in Jhumpa Lahiri novels- most of them solitary housewives, who eat, standing at the sink, too numb to need the comfort of a sit down meal.

They will get a TV soon. And then she'll eat sprawled on the mattress, distracted by Star World. And move from one cliche to another.