He paused for a minute to take several deep breaths. He then stretched his legs wide and bent, first over his left leg, then the right. After a couple of minutes, he straightened up and began walking towards the road, gradually quickening his pace until he was jogging.

Somaiya had been unwell for the past three days, but he hated missing his morning jog despite his wife’s repeated advice against it.

‘Arrey baba, it’s okay. Have you ever heard of anyone being knocked out due to jogging? I will be back in thirty minutes; please keep my tea ready,’ he had told her before leaving his flat.

Suman, his wife, was not amused. ‘Oh, yes. If you don’t jog, heavens may fall,’ she had retorted.

As Somaiya jogged down the road towards the neighbourhood park, he stopped briefly to scold a neighbour for dumping a bin full of leftover food on the footpath. He soon arrived at the park, whose watchman was sleeping outside on a bench.

‘Jaag, bhai, Tiwari,’ Somaiya told the watchman. A group of children and their parents greeted him and, after some banter, began running with him.

Somaiya was back home at 7 a.m. and was ready to leave for work two hours later. By 9.45 a.m., he was at Connaught Place, where his colleague, Harsh Ahuja, was supposed to meet him at the Outer Circle. Ahuja was nowhere in sight. He finally appeared at the scheduled meeting place at 11 a.m. By then, Somaiya had bought two newspapers from a local hawker and devoured their pages, barring the classified columns.

‘Hello, Mr Somaiya. What a fine morning it is! Let’s go, Mr Chaudhary is waiting for us,’ said Ahuja.

‘Ahujaji, it’s close to noon now,’ Somaiya said and smiled.

They both walked briskly to Cappuccinos, the 24x7 coffee shop on the Outer Circle, where Ahuja preferred to meet his business clients. They both ordered their coffees, Ahuja his latte and Somaiya his filter coffee.

Chaudhary joined them half an hour later. And it was business as usual.

‘So, Chaudhary sahib, don’t worry. Our men will secure your bungalow as if it were their own home. They are razor-sharp as far as alertness is concerned. Almost like commandos, sir, and better than the most ferocious Alsatians,’ Ahuja made his enthusiastic pitch.

Somaiya squirmed. His part would come soon.

‘We are known for this, Chaudhary sahib. Ahuja A-1 Security means the very best private security in Delhi. No one can match us,’ Ahuja said.

‘Mr Somaiya Prakash, a retired police officer, will testify for me. He was a Grade-A officer with CTC, India’s premier counter-terror unit, until around six months ago, when he retired. He is now our director of security. He chose to join us, to share his security skills with us and our esteemed clients,’ Ahuja beamed.

Chaudhary and Somaiya shook hands. Polite conversation followed.