18 July

"Instead of today, I shall read out my plays on Wednesday. I have to do this because Priti and Tapati have their Italian class tonight. Go and tell them that I have cancelled my talk today. Why don't you learn Italian?"

"I tried German for six months but then I had to stop," I said.

"Why?"

"I found it too difficult to learn."

"Nothing is too difficult unless you have some special problem. You should try to learn several languages."