"Of course, what else are palaces but built for such thing? No one lives alone in them. You do not have hundreds of rooms if you do not intend them to fill them." She tries not to tease too much, it seemed obvious to her, but then - he lived here, in a small series of rooms by himself. That seemed normal to him, as much as living together was normal to her. "I had my own quarters, as did my husband, his mother as well." Obviously none for this father.

Ruling came with one cost, after all.

"Though there was some things kept apart. In my home, we keep Purdah or the practice of keeping women separate and veiled in public spaces, so in some regards, we had more space than poorer familes, or as I did when I was a child."

She drums her fingers a moment. There were other things too - "My father did not want to be too far from me, and he was Brahmin -" another pause, another explanation. The way of it that becomes clear, life as she had known it was a complicated layering of meaning and position. "Of the priestly caste. So my husband granted him land on which he built a temple to the God Vishnu, and he lived there, rather than in the palace. But he would be at the palace with me just as often." She smiles again. She clearly remembers it well, happily, warmly. Enough that when she finally is done eating and settles back it's still there. "This is very... solitary, in comparison. I could not imagine life without many people near me, all the time. Whether they be servants, my ladies or my family."

Tries to say it as mildly as possible, she did not want to offend him after all.