Arre, this Modi ji... my son was asking me if his engineering college might finally get that promised smart classroom. I told him, "Beta, first let the co-operative ledger balance, then we see." I don't know much about these big schemes, but I know the price of aliv seeds has not gone down, and my garden's tulsi grows same as before, rain or shine.

Ay, Kargil Vijay Diwas. My younger brother, he was posted in Dras that year. I remember the sky over Pune was grey that July, and my mother lit the diya every evening without missing. Now, twenty-five years later, I still recalculate the same figures for the grain co-op, but I make sure to water the tulsi plant before the sun gets too hot. Some balances are not in the ledger—they are in the soil and the silence.