Day one was a failure. The sadhus on the ghats refused to pose. The flower-seller yelled at her for stepping on a marigold. The paan-wala chewed tobacco and said, “You want culture ? Put that phone down and sit.”

“Beta, chai,” her grandmother, Amma, placed a steel tumbler on the table. No handle. No saucer. Just hot, sweet, milky tea that burned the tips of her fingers exactly the way it was supposed to.

Amma stared at her as if she had suggested flying to the moon on a bicycle. “I am not a painting , child. I am making dinner.”