It’s 8 o’clock on a Tuesday morning. Most of the shops on the stretch of Pondy Bazaar in Chennai still have their shutters lowered, while the pavements see fractions of people slowly setting up shop for the long day ahead. Nestled in the tight space between Milan Jyoti clothes store and an ice cream outlet (“Rain or shine, our softy is fine”), a man is vigorously scrubbing clean a stout black Ganesha that sleeps in the alcove. Water sloshes out of his orange bucket as he move