After lunch, they made the boys in sherwani, Nehru coats and zari topis sit down in a row. Garlands long enough to touch their feet fell on their necks. They wore jasmine flowers around their wrists. Well-wishers came. They cuddled the children. Someone slipped gold rings onto their fingers; someone else gifted them gold chains. The five-hundred-, one-hundred-rupee notes they received were too numerous to count. Everyone who came performed the ritual of removing the evil eye by cracking knuckles over the children’s heads. Betel leaves, bananas, karji-kaayi and other snacks were distributed. No
...more
