It was a late Saturday morning in autumn. A saloon car pulled into the driveway of a six-bedroom detached house, nestled within a gated development at the edge of London. A boy tumbled out of the car in muddy football boots and jersey and disappeared into the house. His father, Manoj, parked the car and waved at me. Although we had spoken over the phone and exchanged text messages before, this was the first time we were meeting in person. He is an IT programme manager at a multinational bank and his wife, Simi, is the global head of HR services at a major financial institution in London. Like every Saturday morning, Manoj had taken his eldest son to his football practice while his wife supervised the homework of their other two children and finished some of the housework that has been building up over the week. I had arrived a few moments prior and was waiting for Manoj at the front door, which overlooked neatly manicured lawns that separated their two-and-half-storey newly built red-brick house from the driveway. Manoj greeted me with a broad smile and apologised for the slight delay in meeting me. They were held up in the traffic, Manoj told me as he led me into his home and introduced me to Simi. They had bought this property some nine years ago where they now live with their three children: Meghna, Suraj and Amol, aged 13, 11 and 4 respectively.

Manoj and Simi have busy weekly schedules, populated not only with work commitments and long commutes but also with the management of their children's school and leisure timings. The weekends are therefore set aside for getting domestic chores done, taking their children to a few organised activities that could not be accommodated on weekday evenings and spending time together as a family. That Saturday, for example, the whole family was scheduled to visit a car dealership in the afternoon to browse new models with the view to upgrading the family car and later in the evening they were going out to a local Indian restaurant for a meal. Going out for dinner on Saturday evenings is a regular fixture of this family. Manoj and Simi's children have equally hectic routines all through the week.