Students at a madrassa prepare for I-Day celebrations in Lucknow. Pic/PTI

India turns 70 years tomorrow and my mausiji also turns 70 this year; her life trajectory mirrors that of middle-class India, and so it's worth telling. She is the youngest of six siblings, my mother being the fifth. Like me she was born in Muzaffarpur, Bihar - solidly Hindi-heartland middle-class. She's an awe-inspiring cook and filled with piety - she and I observe chhath puja together - but unlike my mother, she was not interested in books or studying. She was a gorgeous young woman, so much so that my father wanted to marry her to my elder chacha (my father is also one of six siblings). Over the years, chacha has turned out to be an avaricious land-usurper and a dolt; I used to thank God for foiling my father's absurd plans. Nowadays, however, I'm not sure that mausiji and chacha weren't a match made in calendar-art heaven.