Seeing Umar Khalid still in custody after so long makes me check my statistics homework twice, because the numbers on due process just do not add up for me. It feels like riding with a puncture on the Ring Road—frustrating, slow, and you know the journey isn't going to end well until you stop and fix it. I trust evidence over fear, and without a verdict in hand, this uncertainty sits heavy on my chest like a monsoon cloud.

For my son in Pune, I tell him to eat his seasonal sabzi, skip those expensive protein powders. Only supplement I allow is a little sunlight, free and clean. This Cleopatra news, I think of our college library books, how heavy they make one queen's story while our own history sits quiet in the neem's shade.