It was a difficult time for two Bombay rodents, Lord Ratatouille Rastogi and Lady Chuh-raliya Chaturvedi. For the last ten years they had marked out their territory very clearly — they were royal rats, upmarket, sophisticated, classy —they weren’t into handouts, no leftovers…only fresh food for them. Fine dining was their forte, they wished to sample food at the upscale eateries they inhabited. It was their desire to recommend dishes to the chef. They saw themselves as master sniffers, much like sommeliers, or sensory analysts. Ratatouille loved souffles and sushi. Chuh-raliya loved her Indian, Roganjosh, and Parsi dhansak, especially.

Ratatouille had famously told a chef of a five star rated Michelin restaurant once, “Your Lobster Thermidor isn’t what it used to be”. The two rodents had had a long run of “destruction” in Mumbai city — they were considered as Bonnie and Clyde, the Bunty-Babli of ransacking and stealing food. Ratatouille has once said to Chuh-raliya, “Lady C, they don’t appreciate us, they see us as negative creatures, as in we are Robin Hood — like, we sample food before people eat it, we are true patriots. We will only really be appreciated posthumously.”