By 5 AM, she had a spreadsheet open. "Aarav," she said, shaking him awake. "We need a second monitor. And a VPN. Some of these free sites are blocked in our region."

Aarav stared at his mother, bleary-eyed. She had a smudge of sindoor from the screen’s reflection on her forehead and a manic glint in her eye.

: The official website of Doordarshan, the Indian national television broadcaster, offers a variety of Hindi serials for free viewing. You can catch episodes of popular serials like "Tarka" and others.

: Zee5 is another platform that offers both free and paid content. You can find a variety of Hindi serials with a subscription, but they also provide some episodes for free.