We first met on the steps of the Meenakshi temple during Chithirai — Lakshmi tracing kolam at her grandmother's doorstep, Karthik late for the morning aarti and utterly lost in the crowd. He asked her the way; she drew him a map in rice flour on the stone.

For three festival seasons we found each other again and again — over filter coffee on West Masi Street, at nadaswaram recitals, under the same gopuram that first brought us together.

One dawn, as the temple lamps were lit, Karthik asked Lakshmi to walk every festival to come by his side. She said yes before the camphor had burned out.