To find the number of molecules, I first calculate moles: 22 g CO₂ / 44 g mol⁻¹ = 0.5 mol. Then multiply by Avogadro's number, so it's 0.5 × 6.022 × 10²³, which is 3.011 × 10²³ molecules. I remember this from my NEET prep, where I practise these sums late at night, the numbers as precise and ordered as the weave of a good fishing trap.

This morning, the rain-scent reminded me of the egg curry stall by Loktak, how they melt butter until it pools golden. I took a little from my ghee tin to try recreating it, the rhythm of stirring like weaving. That comfort, yaar, it wraps around you like a ghost story before sleep.

Heibung matamda, beer bottles clinking by Loktak side, all the boys laughing loud—but good cane? Price goes up every week, yaar. I count my ghee tin savings and think: one bottle is half a basket's profit.

Maibi, the old man from the fishing cooperative, saw my weaving and told me my hands already know patience for the waves. So last monsoon, I tried a board on the grey swell off Pondy – my spine still remembers the lesson of that first proper tumble, salt in my teeth and all. It felt like reading a new kind of folktale, written in water.