If ever a survey were to be conducted to find out the most friendly couple among the residents of Silver Oaks, the tiny neighborhood that abutted the southern banks of the river Ganges that served as the informal line of demarcation between those who had made it in life and those who hadn’t in South Kolkata, then the Banerjees would have won it hands down.

The two were charm personified, Kaustabh and his beautiful wife, Ira.

Individually, each stepped out armed with an omnipresent smile and a liberal serving of kind words, ever doling out ounces of benevolence and lending grace wherever they went and whomsoever they chanced upon.

All partook of their goodness, right from the Johns, their next door neighbours, to the rather boisterous Oscar family that stayed two lanes further, to Martha, the hawk eyed one armed septuagenarian widow who kept house, ensuring that the guests who flocked to their much anticipated weekly parties were well looked after.

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