Meera smiles. This is the connective tissue of Indian family life: the constant, low-grade hum of interference. No one is ever truly alone. Privacy is a Western luxury; here, boundaries are porous. The neighbor’s daughter will walk in without knocking to borrow a cup of gram flour. The vegetable vendor will yell your name from the street, saving you the walk to the market.

Her husband, Rajiv, is already on the roof, clearing yesterday’s marigold petals from the small temple altar. He moves with the quiet automation of a man who has performed the same puja for twenty-two years: light the camphor, ring the bell, smear a dot of vermillion on the stone. The gods, like his wife, expect punctuality.

In a thousand homes across India, the day does not begin with an alarm. It begins with a sound: the low, insistent whistle of a pressure cooker or the gurgle of the first kettle of chai . This is the grammar of the morning.