Siddharth sat back in his creaking apartment chair, the soft glow of his laptop screen painting his tired face. He had been staring at the Zaventra pendrive’s files for the third time, eyes narrowing as he traced the proposed route of the Ganesh Chaturthi procession stalls.

The neat rows of colorful kiosks outlined on the map matched the major arterial roads and narrow lanes where the crowd would be densest. His gut twisted uneasily.