As research head for a hugely popular crime series, Shamael's job involves routinely speaking with the police. Often, while discussing atrocities and criminals, the police make a passing remark, "Muslim hain toh aisa hi [crime] karte hain." Shamael doesn't react, and when she gives them her business card, which has her full name, Shamael Khan, the officials sheepishly apologise, "Sorry, madam."

Shamael, 30, laughs as she tells us this. "My name doesn't easily give away the fact that I am Muslim," she explains. There are only a privileged few in India, who can proudly wear the Khan tag. For Shamael, however, her surname proved to be an inconvenience when she moved to this city from New Delhi and hunted for a house. Single and a media professional, she wasn't the ideal tenant. And, she was Muslim. "After I had paid my deposit, the landlord said he wouldn't rent me the flat. For two nights, I roamed the city, until I finally found a place," Shamael recalls. "But, I have faced more discrimination as a woman than as a Muslim."