On an afternoon just about a month before Deepavali, Kanchan Katkar, 76, deftly picks up silver ghungroos with a pair of iron tongs that fit into her palm. She attaches them to chain loops. “I have been doing this for decades and will continue to do this as long as I am able,” she says, her voice bearing a gentle tremor. Deep inside her dimly lit house, hidden within the twisting lanes of Hupari town, where rooms line up like wagons on a track, Katkar sits in the shadows.

Back in 1970, Kanchan was one of the few girls who completed school in Hupari. Marriage then was taken for granted, but after her two sisters wed, she decided to stay single to care for her parents, who had actively participated in the Indian freedom struggle.