Lansdowne has an unhurried pace of life. It lives in the moment but takes pride in its rich heritage. The town is dotted with white stone bungalows from the British era, with low boundary walls, French windows, carefully manicured flower beds and sloping roofs. The town also has several centuries-old Gothic churches with tall spires, mostly empty prayer halls and moss-laden walls enclosing sprawling grounds.

Kennedy Hill Street, on the other hand, winds up the steep slopes of the hill and lies deserted during most of the day, barring the occasional vehicles, cyclists and walkers. The road does not take you to any popular food destination or swanky watering holes. It leads to around two dozen Victorian-style bungalows built on the hill, near which are a smattering of old bakeries, restaurants and tea and coffee houses.

There is also a single-theatre movie hall, the Albert, which shows popular Bollywood movies during the evenings and old English movies during the day. Farouk Mistry, the seventy-six-year-old manager of the Albert, had been hired when he was twenty-five as a rookie accountant by the theatre’s Anglo-Indian owner, Michael Soosairaj. Mistry had excelled at his work and, in no time, the management had entrusted him with the task of running the theatre’s affairs.

A hundred metres away from the Albert is Wellesley Mansion. A 147-year-old Victorian-style bungalow, Wellesley Mansion sprawls across a 1,000-yard plot and has twelve rooms, twelve bathrooms and three kitchens.

The mansion is the CTC’s preferred guest house-cum-secret training establishment for operations, especially those that call for equipping trainees with experience on the street and building their endurance and strength. The colonial relic’s east side faces Kennedy Hill Street, with an orchard of apple and pear trees between the mansion and the compound’s large black entrance gate.

A narrow pathway leads from the gates to the mansion. On the mansion’s west side lie rows of flower beds and a boundary wall. Beyond the wall, thick woods cover the hill’s face right to the bottom. Standing by the wall, one can get a bird’s-eye view of the town lying below. At certain times of the day, especially in the morning, groups of monkeys sit on the walls, their backs to the town, peering at the happenings inside Wellesley Mansion.

At 5 a.m., the mansion was cloaked in darkness. Fifteen minutes later, lights flickered on in some of the rooms, the bathrooms and one of the kitchens. By 6 a.m., the darkness began to melt away as the sky lightened.

Sawant, the retired CTC operative now back in action on a special contract, took centre stage in the main drawing room while addressing the Pakistan-bound recruits.

‘Gentlemen, I hope you all had a good night’s sleep? I am assuming you have done your morning chores and had your tea and biscuits?’

‘Yes, sir!’ replied Anant.