Earlier this month, Komal and Sunny Shah’s four-year-old daughter, Maahi, surprised them by gifting her mother a necklace, and her father a keychain. The Indian-origin Kenyan nationals now living in London were particularly impressed because she had bought both items after saving her pocket money, something she had never done before. “We found out that she had not only started saving her pocket money, but also analysing whether she really needed whatever she had bought with it so far,” Komal tells mid-day.

The change in their daughter’s behaviour, her parents realise, was a direct effect of a two-year trip across 15 countries, which began with Spain in October 2021 and culminated in Mumbai in June 2023. The Shahs, or the Nomadic Shahs, as they call themselves, withdrew Maahi from formal education and took her with them because they wanted the experience to educate her.