So, the phone works? When you dial the reception to ask for a housekeeper, though, you hear nothing but short beeps, as if they've foreknowledge of the stench coming from the clogged sink.
–Namaste, madamji. Can you come downstairs?
Mandira forces a foot out of the blanket. The air-conditioning is off-limits for visitors from November through February. And with the windows shut to keep the honking cars and hooting rickshaws out, you could coil round yourself, tail in mouth, and choke. Your soul puffed out of the body would then swirl skyward, hover over the city, and rain down on the Ganga.
Well, no, your soul may not return at all. So says the old widow Mandira sees at the river's ghat every day. That one widow among the thousands of Hindu widows who come to pass through the holy city of Kashi because the ferry is supposed to be one-way.