On the night Surajpur lit its lamps, every balcony became a small constellation. Children fired sparklers in crooked spirals, shopkeepers propitiated accounts with incense, and the old banyan at the crossroads wore marigold garlands like a deity’s whiskers. That was where Asha Menon, in a teal kurta that turned the firelight into a lake, first saw Arjun Kumar arguing with a lantern.