The humidity in Mumbai had reached a breaking point, the kind of heavy, electric stillness that usually preceded a second wave of the monsoon. Inside the Business Wing of the university, the air-conditioning was set to a crisp, clinical temperature, but it did nothing to cool the irritation simmering beneath Aarav’s skin.

He sat in the back row of the "Global Venture Strategy" seminar, a room that usually felt like his home turf. The leather of his chair felt too tight, the hum of the overhead projector too loud, and the rhythmic tapping of Sameer’s pen two rows down sounded like a hammer against his skull.