…ld had at least one woman engaged in it: mothers, sisters, aunts, daughters-in-law. Beedi work was stitched into daily life like cooking or fetching water. Each evening after school, I sat beside my mother, folding leaves, packing tobacco, tying threads. The sharp scent of tobacco clung to our clothes, home, and bodies. Women gathered in narrow lanes and front yards, chatting as they worked, their hands moving with remarkable speed. Yet behind the…