Eram, who had noticed a glazed look in Ajay Rai’s eyes, was nudging Gehna with his elbow. ‘Shut up about the damn Airbnb’s,’ he hissed at her. ‘Get to the good bits.’

‘I’m getting, don’t rush me. You’re breaking my rhythm. So, anyway, Dad, the point is that these poor people who just want to work have nowhere to go during the day. They hang out in coffee shops because they can’t afford an entire office, what with rent and electricity and things. But maybe they can afford a single desk? What we do is, we build a conducive work environment with Wi-Fi and printers and conference rooms. People pay a membership fee, which allows them access to the facilities. Ta-dah.’

Ajay Rai smiled indulgently at his daughter. ‘Co-working.’

‘The what now?’

‘What you just described is called a co-working space.’

‘Oh, is that a thing? Because I haven’t—’

‘It’s a thing,’ Ajay assured her. ‘At least half a dozen such places have probably opened and gone bust in the time we’ve been talking. Would you like to know why?’

‘Not really,’ Gehna said, irritated with her father’s patronizing tone, ‘but I guess you’ll tell me anyway.’

‘Because real estate prices in Mumbai are among the highest in the world. Which means that you’ll have limited space to rent out. Which means fewer members. Which means your costs will always be higher than your cash inflow. How will you turn a profit? In any case, you’ll have your hands full with the baby, so maybe consider a nice, easy job with flexible—’

‘Flexible-shmexible. I don’t want a nice, easy job. I want to run a successful business. And I’ll tell you how we’ll turn a profit. Eram and I did the math.’

Gehna took her time running the numbers. She explained to her father how the membership pricing itself would be competitive, barely covering the costs of keeping the workspace afloat. But she planned to fill the place with services that were not included in the basic fee and could be bought by the members at a 200 per cent mark-up. There would be an eatery on one floor, a recreation room on another, maybe a health club on yet another. The way Gehna saw it, the more time that members were induced to spend inside, the more money they would feel inclined to spend. So why not provide them with everything they might need, on any given day, under the same roof?

Ajay Rai was not smiling any longer. He was listening. At one point, while Gehna was speaking, the nervous assistant popped in to ask if they needed anything. Ajay dismissed her with a simple flick of his hand. He realized that Gehna was not interested in opening yet another cute cafe with potted plants and red velvet cake. She had bigger dreams.

‘Getting a liquor licence is no easy thing,’ Ajay said. ‘But you’ll need one eventually if you expect your members to spend their evenings there.’