He renamed the file to photo1.jpg and uploaded it.

Karthik clicked on "Smart Card Application" under the 'Citizen Services' tab. A new window popped up.

Karthik, a 28-year-old software developer, sat on a plastic chair that was one size too small. He wasn’t there for himself. He was there for his grandmother, Lakshmi, a woman who had spent sixty years of her life trading physical coupons for rice. But the world had moved on, and Lakshmi was stuck in the gap between the physical and the digital.

Karthik frowned. It was a JPEG. It met the criteria. He tried again. Same error.