The afternoon heat pressed down on Chitpur Road like an old, stubborn hand. Meera stood at the threshold of her mother-in-law’s room, the air thick with camphor and dust. Amma had died three days ago, but her presence still sat on the wooden swing, swaying slightly in the fan’s breeze.
The Last Sari
Meera pulled it out. A letter slipped from its folds, brittle as a dried leaf.
She opened the cupboard. Saris lay folded like silent rivers—Banarasi gold, Kanchipuram silk, a blood-red Paithani that Amma had worn to her own husband’s funeral. At the very bottom, crushed and forgotten, was a simple white cotton sari with a pale blue border. No zari. No weight.
“You must choose one,” said her husband, Arjun, not looking up from the ledger. “One sari for the ritual. The rest go to the temple.”