“Go wash your face first,” she teased, already pouring him a cup into a clay kulhad that the neighborhood potter had left on their doorstep the day before. The clay added an earthy note to the tea that no ceramic mug could replicate.

“ Subhodayam , Amma,” she murmured, touching her grandmother’s feet. Amma, her silver hair in a tight, neat braid, smiled, her fingers expertly arranging marigolds into a brass platter. “ Subhodayam , child. Did you charge that compooter of yours? My bhajans are on a new app now. Your cousin in New Jersey sent it.”

Kavya looked up at the crescent moon caught in the branches of a peepal tree, listened to the distant cry of a conch shell from another house, and smelled the jasmine in her hair. She typed her reply: