Near the kitchen in Virendra's house is the room where my family stayed. We three slept together on a wooden bed with a mattress like a futon on it, under a mosquito net because there are no screens on the windows in India. Up the stairs, the four children, Santu, Anu, Kashika, and Suju, slept on futon like things on the floor. If you keep on going up, you get to the landlord's family on the second floor. Up more stairs, you get to the roof.
Roofs are flat in India, and used every day like other rooms in the house.
They have small walls on the edges so you don't fall off. Santu and I would always fly kites up here. I have a lot of other stories I can tell you about India if you are interested. Virendra is originally from the state of Rajastan, where the rest of his family lives. This borders the state of Gujarat, where there was a recent earthquake, and where many people they know are suffering after losing their homes, relatives and friends.