Nandita

She came up from Kota two years ago, which is the coaching-class city three and a half hours south and the reason half the twenty-somethings in Jaipur are from there. She stayed for a job rather than a course. Hindi and English, five foot three.

Short bookings arranged the same day are most of what she does. She is on the early-twenties page with two others, and the three of them are the only women here under twenty-five - that page is an age and nothing else, and it does not pretend to be a student list.

Civil Lines is the quietest central address in the city, bungalow roads and the metro along one edge, and it means she can be most places inside twenty minutes after nine at night. She goes up to Bhiwadi when it is planned a day ahead.