“Friends don’t send post at midnight,” Suresh says. “In my time, we sent Diwali cards. That’s it.”

The house is quiet now. Alka sits on the swing in the living room, shelling peas into a steel bowl. The ceiling fan whirs lazily. A saas-bahu serial plays on TV, but she’s not watching—she’s listening. Her phone buzzes. Rohan has landed. Photo of airport baggage carousel. Caption: “Reached. Thepla intact.”

by Puneet Agarwal (under the pseudonym "Deshmukh"), a UK-based Indian businessman, the series featured Savita Patel