it was 5.30 pm and he quickly paid off the taxi at the stately wrought iron gates ( ignoring the drivers loud grumbling - expressed in some unintelligible rural marathi dialect - over the modest , non-mumbai-sized tip the economizing arden left him with ) , and after he clambered up the narrow , sweeping driveway , past the mercedes and the bmws and the lexuses parked on the side , he was required to stop and reconsider things as the edge of the colossal house hove into view .