Kavya slipped out of her cotton night suit, careful not to wake her younger twin brothers, Chintu and Mintu, who lay in a tangle of limbs and a shared Superman blanket. She padded barefoot across the cool marble floor of the verandah. The air smelled of wet earth and the marigolds strung over the main door.
Evening brings a sensory shift. The smell of frying onions, cumin, and turmeric wafts from every window in the neighborhood. It is the "Tadka"—the tempering of spices—that marks the transition from work to home. Kavya slipped out of her cotton night suit,