Beta, listen — for strength, I would skip those expensive protein shakes and just have my daughter’s favourite: sprouted moong salad with a big dollop of homemade dahi. The only supplement worth the fuss is a good vitamin D, especially for our girls studying indoors all day, but check the brand theek se.

Beta, listen—my daughter in Ambala keeps telling me how one of her batchmates, a boy from a village near Hisar, failed his engineering semester because he couldn't afford the coaching for the state exam. All these "merit-based" schemes, arey, they forget that the kid who has to walk two kilometres to the bus stop and then help his mother with the pickle jars at night never gets the same starting line. I’m not saying don’t study hard, but the government should first fix the potholes on the road to the exam centre, na? Otherwise the pickle jars will always break for the ones who can’t afford bubble wrap.