I  Imarti handed the ten paisa coin to old Prithiviraj, picked up the packet of salt he had kept on the narrow glass topped shop counter and walked away from the shop towards the doctor’s house before he opened his toothless mouth.   Old Prithiviraj, the bald Marwari in a dhoti with white drooping whiskers had leased the shop in 1936 from the municipal committee and was known to offer unsolicited advice to his customers.  Imarti recognized the louts from the dhobi ghat on Shakur Ki Dandi who stared at her hips and passed lewd comments from outside Kaluram Halwai’s shop