It is around noon that I enter the BKC highrise where I will meet Taly Lind. I am in the elevator, just past the fourth floor when I receive a notification about Mercury entering retrograde motion. The planet of expression and communication, now in the dreaded phase, cannot ruin this interview. I ring the doorbell and there is Taly, about to greet me. Totoro cuts the welcome note short. "We found him in Maryland, and got him home. My kids are fond of him and cannot imagine a home without a pet. So, we had to bring him with us to India," she says of the cat whose name is inspired by the Japanese animation classic, My Neighbour Totoro.

Behind Taly, wife to US Consul General for Mumbai David Ranz, is Sasha Zaveri, who is married to Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri scion Nisschal Zaveri. Sasha leads me to the drawing room where the ageless Jinx Akerkar sits on a couch, sipping a glass of cold water. Suddenly, there is an argument over the seating arrangement. "I don't want my stomach seen in the pictures," Sasha laughs. "Do make us look younger and thinner," Taly pleads, as 88-year-old Jinx shrugs, "I am not moving anywhere from this spot." She is mother to celebrated chef and restaurateur Rahul Akerkar, credited with introducing Mumbai to European fine-dine cuisine at his Mandlik Road restaurant, Indigo.