In most Indian homes the day does not end at a clock — it ends at a threshold. Somewhere between the last orange of the sun and the first blue of the night, a match is struck.
This hour, sandhya, is when the air cools just enough for smoke to hang instead of scatter. A single stick of mogra can hold an entire room for nine hours because the molecules are no longer fighting the heat.
Begin by wiping the threshold. Light one stick, not three. Let it rest in a brass holder away from a draught, and allow the first two minutes of smoke to pass before you sit — that is the bamboo burning off, not the flower.
