Voovi smiled, handed him a jalebi. “That’s Mardana Sasur to you.”

Voovi pushed his spectacles up. “Leave? And let Bheema think he won? No, beta. A true sasur does not run. He prepares .”

Bheema sneered. “Easily.”

“Not with your fists,” Voovi said. “With your heart. Look behind you.”

“Voovi!” Bheema roared. “Last chance. Say yes, or I break your door down.”

The strongman, Bheema, could bend iron rods with his bare hands. When Voovi said no, Bheema laughed. “Old man,” he rumbled, “I will come tomorrow with fifty men. You will say yes. Or you will be a sasur without a house.”

Bheema pushed through to Voovi’s house. The old man sat on a wooden stool, polishing a pair of old army boots—his father’s, from the war.

Bheema’s men shuffled. One of them—his own cousin—muttered, “Bhai, the old man is right. Let’s go.”