“She and I were supposed to tell everyone about our kitty-party idea. I wanted to have the first meeting next week.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Deepak raises an eyebrow.

“Of course,” Bina says. “Even with everything that just happened, it’s still something we should do. And I really need this.”

Years ago, after Bina accepted that she had to let go of the career she had built since she was a little girl, she told herself that she’d be fulfilled if she hit all the milestones expected of her. But despite getting married, moving to America, and raising children, she couldn’t help but feel as though something was missing. On some mornings, as she chopped onions and the Today show droned in the background, Bina wondered, Is this all it amounts to?

Then when Devi, her closest friend from her acting days, planted the idea about a kitty party, Bina had an aha moment that would have made Oprah Winfrey proud. Something in her stirred for the first time in years as Devi told her about a student who put a kitty party in a script. What if you tried something like this with your married friends? Devi texted. Devi was always calling Bina’s friends “your married friends.” She got divorced ten years ago and spends her days teaching screenwriting in Los Angeles. Because of the time difference, Bina only gets to interact with her through a series of texts, WhatsApp memes, and a biweekly Zoom call.

Bina loved kitty parties when she lived in Bombay. Every month, women met at someone’s house, ate, and talked. After Devi brought it up, Bina knew this was her chance. This was exactly what her life needed, something that brought women together, something that was truly her own and greater than her at the same time.

Bina explained the idea to Anita late last year and suggested they call it Chats Over Chai. (In her know-it-all voice, Suhani later claimed getting together to talk about people is just organized gossiping. But Bina is determined to make the group more than that, even though she thinks it’s more than okay to take an interest in other people’s lives. This country is so apathetic and detached. Real community means giving a damn about what others are up to!) And most of all, it’s a chance for her to do something greater than herself, something that can also potentially give purpose to other women. Bina has heard too many women who came from India promise to do certain things once they were settled in America, once their children were grown up, once their parents were healthy. Year after year, she saw these promises become more distant and smaller.

“Maybe it’s okay if you put it off for some time. You’ve already been so busy for the past two weeks organizing all this,” Deepak says.