The Mumbai monsoon was merciless that July night. Sheets of rain hammered the windows of the old Andheri high-rise, turning the streets below into black rivers. Boxes were still half-unpacked, suitcase open on the floor, the smell of wet cardboard and new paint mixing in the tiny 1BHK flat. The move from a broken past in another city felt like another lifetime. The goal was to disappear into Mumbai’s anonymity.

The neighbor changed everything.