At Kolkata writers’ building staff room, ladies are busy gossiping. Topic is family planning method employed by them. First one: We use Nirodh. We don’t like it at all. My husband says it’s like having bath over one’s raincoat. I too don’t like it. Second one: I take the pills. I hate the vomiting feeling it causes in the mornings and I don’t like it. Third one: I use the loop and the fear that it might slip keeps me on tenterhooks. I don’t like it at all. The fourth, a tall stoic lady knitting a sweater is obviously quite satisfied with her method but doesn’t want to reveal. The others accuse her of being nasty and she corrects them. “Our method is somewhat crude and needs a bit of explaining. As you know I am tall. My husband is quite short. We always do it standing. In order to reach me he climbs over an old Britannia tin we have at home. I know when he is about to ‘come’. I kick the tin.”