At the table sat only a few younger relatives in their mid-twenties and a chatty aunt who kept repeating, with great importance, that “women shouldn’t wait too long to have children.”

My sister Mira spent the whole evening trying to make me look like a failure. She would drag me over to the wealthy guests on the groom’s side and loudly claim that I was “too picky,” or pretend to be sad that “such a wonderful woman is still single.”