Meanwhile, the grandmother is trying to instruct the domestic help, Kavita Didi, on the correct way to cut coriander—"finer, didi , finer, like my mother taught me." Kavita Didi has worked here for eleven years. She is not "staff." She is the one who knows where the spare keys are, who remembers that Rajiv is allergic to brinjal, and who will, later today, cry on Neelam’s shoulder about her own son’s school fees. The line between family and employee is often deliberately blurred, a source of both comfort and quiet, unresolved tension.

Evening brought the "Homecoming." As the city’s dust settled, the front door became a portal. Shoes were kicked off, burdens were shed at the threshold, and the TV flickered to life with the nightly news or a cricket match.