Apde su?

I love the Gujarati phrase apde su? It means — what is it to us? My mother was disabled. Ageing aunts, keeping their own family engagements on hold, would visit her with reserves of gossip. A cousin is having an affair with the gym trainer. Another aunt was threatening to leave her husband. Pankajbhai was bankrupt. After an exchange of beautiful viciousness, the aunt would look at my mother and shrug — “apde su” — which not only absolved them from the minor sin of gossip, but reminds me now of a fond form of keeping another person casual company; this conversation, easy and spry, armed with prayer and energy, is gone forever – those lazy Juhu afternoons will never come back. 

- Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi is an author