The Goddess Arrives in a Seven-Year-Old's Body
She is seated on a wooden paat or a folded cloth, her feet placed in a brass thali of warm water and rose petals. A woman who might otherwise dismiss her as too loud, too demanding, too much, now bends to touch those same feet. The tika goes on her forehead. The halwa is served first to her. For the duration of the puja, she is not a child to be managed. She is Durga. She is Lakshmi. She is the living form of Shakti, and the household reorganises itself around her presence.
