Munna too admits to a moment of indecision after the birth. “Manjula gave birth to twin girls. I have three sons and, for a moment, I thought if only I could keep the girls,” he says. “But then we needed the house.”

Another symbol of the family’s affluence is the digital camera that Manjula now brings, to zoom to the image of a woman living in a thatched-roof house, covered with plastic sheets. “Look at this woman,” she says animatedly. “How much does she earn? She would never dream of owning her own house. She now wants to become a surrogate. It will change her life.”

But both Manjula and Munna say it was an act born out of compulsion. Will they do it again? “No, never, we already have the house,” comes the reply.