Chennai, Jan. 4 -- On a Saturday afternoon last August, 40-year-old Trisha Mukherjee stood outside a stranger's apartment in Bengaluru's Yemalur neighbourhood, wondering if she had made a mistake. Inside were 11 strangers she was about to meet. Would it be an awkward, embarrassing experience? The question had bounced around endlessly in her head through the hour-long auto ride from her home in Hulimavu. Finally, she rang the doorbell.

Mukherjee, a human resources professional with a women-centric non-profit, had spent much of her adult life in Delhi. When her banker husband relocated to Bengaluru in 2024, she moved with him, along with their 11-year-old son, her mother-in-law and their dog. Her employer offered her a work-from-home arran...