The turn off the Delhi to Jaipur highway takes about half an hour, and then the plots widen, the noise falls away and ten thousand square feet of open ground sits behind a quiet gate. The front door gives nothing away. Step through it and a king and a queen look down from gilded frames while a liveried butler, cast in bronze, holds out a tray that never empties.

The main living room is built around a pharaoh mask set into a wall of rough-sawn timber. The ceiling above it spirals outward in bands of concealed gold light, a zebra swirl carpet runs the length of the floor, and curved cream sofas hold the middle of the room with a brass horse keeping watch from the corner.