The stepmother—Kavita, though Arjun rarely uttered her name without venom—had ensnared Papa Ji young, barely twenty when she wed the widower twice her age. Younger even than Radha, with skin like polished marble and eyes sharp as daggers, she was the sole heir to a real estate empire that sprawled across cities, her father's developments turning dusty plots into gleaming towers.

Their union had fused the Thakurs' rural might with urban sprawl, swallowing competitors and ballooning fortunes.