Aisha put her hand on his. “Papa?”

Last week, Aisha had found an old VHS tape in a steel cupboard: Dum Laga Ke Haisha . A 2015 Yash Raj film. The cover showed a heavy-set man and a small, fierce woman. Papa’s handwriting on the label read: “The story of us.”

The cursor blinked on an old, dust-flecked monitor. For Aisha, the words on the screen weren't just a search query. They were a lifeline.

Papa had been a romantic. He’d met Mama at a film screening of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge in the 90s, and he’d cried during every Shah Rukh Khan movie since. But after Mama left seven years ago, the only thing Papa cried into was his tea. He stopped watching films. He stopped smiling. He just came home from his shift at the garment factory, ate, and stared at the wall.

That’s when Papa came home.