Akshay Ahuja on tour with Cremated Souls, an Indian death metal band for whom Tulsa is a distant city of dreams:

The band was ready. I walked over to the room with the drum set and realized from the pictures and statues that they were playing in the devramane—a small shrine that all reasonably devout Hindu families have somewhere in their house. There was a brightly colored picture of Parvati and statues of Shiva and Ganesha, along with oil lamps and other implements of devotion.

I looked around. “You’re going to play in here?” I asked.

Pradyum laughed. “Don’t worry,” he said. “The gods don’t mind.”