About 12 years ago, the day Debshankar Santra turned four years, four months and four days old, his school, Saraswati Shishu Mandir at Sepoy Bazar area in Midnapore town of West Bengal, organised a hatey khowri or aksharavyasam—a Hindu ceremony marking a child’s formal entry to education—with a yajna at the school premises. His parents, Durgaprasad and Banashree were present. After the yajna, the priest initiated him to learn the alphabet, starting with OM.