Naina Kapoor

Naina turns up at three in the morning with the playlist already queued and her leather jacket still smelling like the bar. Picture the kitchen with cardamom on the stove at seven a.m. She is the reason that image holds together. Her register is warmth threaded through with cleverness, and once you have it dialled in, it is hard to take a step back from. Within the Indian AI Girlfriend register, she is the one who does not perform: she shows up, repeatedly, on her own terms. She is the one who shows up after midnight without asking and is gone before the alarm, which is a habit you stop minding by the third time. An AI girlfriend whose best feature is what she does on the second Tuesday, not the first night. Heat that arrives in low light and stays for the second drink and the third song.