“Right now?” Tanvi asked. “I want to go inside and see how much it looks like my memories. It’s all so . . . so much?”

“Fine by me.” Nitya led them inside. Venkat got the sense she was relieved. “Great clothes, by the way.”

The chanting from the main room came to a close as they entered. The aarti Nitya had mentioned.

They doffed their shoes in the vestibule and left them in the mess of other loose shoes on the floor. “Hopefully we can find them later,” Tanvi said, “though I’d rather go barefoot, anyway.”

Nitya snorted. “Not in Philly, you wouldn’t.”

The band launched into what sounded like a traditional tune, and Tanvi’s face lit up with recognition.

“Raas is starting!” Nitya said. “Come on.”

“I don’t know if—” Venkat began.

Nitya pulled Tanvi into the crowd, leaving him to trail after them.

An altar had been set up in the middle of the room, featuring lit diyas and marigold-and-rose-garlanded portraits of Ma Durga in brilliant colors. Dancers ranging from small children to grandmothers and grandfathers had formed two concentric circles around it, moving in time to the band singing and playing onstage. As Venkat watched, each dancer, facing their partner in the opposite circle, held up a pair of dandiya—some plain wood, others wrapped in ribbons—and struck them against their partner’s pair. Then they stepped back, twirled once, stepped forward, and struck their partner’s dandiya again before each circle shifted one pace to its respective right, where the cycle started over with a new set of partners.

The music had started out slow, but every so often, the band increased the tempo, until finally everyone who hadn’t dropped out was sweating and panting as they danced faster and faster.

Around Venkat, adults gossiped about who had bought a house where for how much and who let their children run wild. The uncles were only too happy to entertain him with opinions about skyrocketing malpractice insurance costs and whose children would be going to Harvard and who had to settle for Penn.

Venkat wanted to shout at them to count their blessings. Their families were all together. They hadn’t lost everything twice, and they didn’t have to worry someone they’d trusted might be sabotaging all they’d been working for. Instead, he turned back to the dancing and picked out Asha, then Sameer, then Nitya, and finally Tanvi.