The Indian day begins early, often before the sun peeks over the horizon. In a typical household, the first sounds are not alarms, but the soft chai-chai of boiling milk and the grinding of spices. The matriarch is usually the first to rise, lighting the kitchen and often a small brass lamp in the pooja (prayer) room.
Yet, the spirit adapts. We are seeing the rise of the "nuclear joint family"—where multiple nuclear families buy apartments in the same building, or on the same street. They live separately, but dine together every Sunday. They have their own keys, but the grandmother has a master key to all three flats.