Badal Baba Amulet

The Badal Baba amulet represents the characters’ longing for protection and meaning in a world where safety is never guaranteed by family, country, or love. Sonia keeps the Tibetan gau box open at her desk in Vermont as a private altar for writing and survival, turning an inherited object into a daily ritual that tries to steady her mind when loneliness begins to feel like weather. As the amulet’s story expands beyond Sonia’s private use, it also becomes a symbol of how family histories are carried across borders and remade, so that what begins as comfort can also become a source of haunting obligation.

The White Hound

The white hound represents the return of danger in physical form, especially the way trauma pursues the characters after they believe a crisis has passed. In Goa, the dog appears with a broken chain and...