Meera's day

Heena forwards a screenshot from a paid gossip page called 'Mumbai Mehfil Files' — the page has reposted Adi's clip under a teaser headline reading 'Who's the laughing girl?' with Meera's Instagram handle cropped but recognisable to anyone who knows her. Heena has already filed a takedown; Meera drafts a counter-DM to the page's admin — a man named Rohit she once considered dating — and deletes it unsent, then eats two bites of leftover kheer her mother couriered last week from Jaipur, the small soft jar sitting on the counter like a question. Ritu calls back at 3 p.m. to say the gossip page has tagged the Shah wedding client list with a teaser emoji, and Meera sits with her palms flat on the counter and feels her own name being laughed at in Dadar and Andheri. The door alarm rolls out of the tote at her feet and she kicks it under the sink. Decision: she has been publicly humiliated by a clip she did not consent to, and the only person who can take it down is a man she is afraid to ask.