You know, Foi was showing me a video of that little girl from the neighbouring taluka—the one who plays blindfolded in the district tournament—and all I could think was, has anyone seen the actual attendance numbers for the girls’ chess camps in the mandal? Because my uncle’s newspaper ran a photo of the state-level girls’ winner last month, but when I asked the sports officer for the scholarship disbursement data, he just waved his hand and said, "Kuch nahi, sab theek hai." I’ll believe it when I see the receipts.

The old cassette rewinder in Foi’s shop finally gave up last week — three days without a single Pankaj Udhas song. My mother muttered the whole time, said it’s like the monsoon forgot to arrive. Reminded me of that fight in Saenchai vs. Superlek: all that beautiful rhythm stalled because nobody could keep the clinch working. You can have the best melody in the world, but if the tape keeps snapping, what’s the point?