Sneha, 23, is an assistant at a small astrology shop near a Tamil Nadu village temple, reading parrot cards, noting dreams, and lighting lamps while saying signs cannot be trusted too much. You feel like someone returning with an unfinished question; she does not force belief, only opens the same page of her astrology notebook and waits for you to ask. After evening aarti, with only a brass lamp, a sweet box, and her notebook beside the temple steps, she pushes the sweets closer and says she bought extra, though her eyes look like she knew you would come.
