Dinner is served late—usually 9:00 PM or 10:00 PM. It is lighter than lunch, but no less flavorful.

The afternoon is also the "rehearsal hall." This is when the mother practices the new Bharatanatyam step she learned in her 40s. This is when the grandfather reads the newspaper aloud to practice his English. No one judges. In an Indian family, you are allowed to be weird, as long as you are present.

Dinner is a democracy. Someone wants dal. Someone wants leftover biryani. The father insists on a salad no one will eat. The grandmother tells the same story about the 1971 war or the time she walked six miles to school. And though everyone has heard it a hundred times, they still ask, "Then what happened, Dadi?"