India, Nov. 7 -- I love the festive season. Homes across India are dressed up for Diwali right now. Relatives are visiting each other. Sweets, carefully selected, are being delivered to loved ones.

An endless number of texts are being sent.

What interests me most, in times like these, are the phone calls people make, to people they do not call at any other time of the year. By the end of today, we will all have said, over and over: "It's been too long. We must meet after Diwali". This happens around every festival, as well as around birthdays and anniversaries.

What I know by now is that I do mean what I say in these calls, in the way that one means the greeting itself: "I hope you have a good year. Let's be sure to reconnect". But I a...