During the 6:30 PM kickoff, I'm usually between clients, sipping chai with amma and discussing the game. The 12:30 AM ones test my patience—I'm up, but my mind is on tomorrow's dye stock. VAR? It's like when I'm deciding between two rose varieties for my garden: you think you know, but the result is always a surprise.

Amma still does all our accounts on a torn register, not even a saree app — she says no bank manager can beat the chit fund uncle who knows whose daughter is getting married. Last month we put extra into the local samiti instead of a flashy DPS, because when the dye price shot up, the samiti gave us a top-up without asking for my Aadhaar or my mother’s jalebi recipe. I’d rather trust the money that has seen my struggles than a scheme that hasn’t tasted my chai.