On Sunday morning, my wife and I went to Colaba in South Mumbai, as we have been doing for many years. It was a lovely day. The rains were finally here, and the weather was pleasant after two months of scorching summer. We didn’t have an agenda. We simply wanted to spend a few unhurried hours there, and spend them together. It rained on and off as we walked the length of Colaba Causeway, a bustling shopping street where shops and roadside vendors sold everything from cosmetic

We live in a time when everyone seems to be rushing past one another, texting on their phones, chasing deadlines and targets or caught up in the rat race with little or no time to spend with family and friends, the company of people—even if they are total strangers—can be a pleasant and unexpected change. Picture this. One evening, at a restaurant in Bandra, a group of people from mixed backgrounds and probably little in common arrive one by one and share a table with so