From one of India’s most original and audacious writers, Uday Prakash, come three stinging and comic tales, of living and surviving in today’s urban, globalised India. Thematically linked, these three stories, translated into English by Jason Grunebaum, reveal the real India, and lives of Indians, that rarely comes across in the media.

In ‘The Walls of Delhi’, a sweeper discovers a cache of black money and escapes to see the Taj Mahal with his underage mistress; in ‘Mohandas’, a dalit races to reclaim his life stolen by an upper-caste identity thief; and finally, in ‘Mangosil’, a slum baby’s head gets bigger and bigger as he gets smarter and smarter, while his family tries to find a cure.

In each of these novella-sized stories, Uday Prakash portray realities about caste and class and shows how those who dare to dissent against a suffocating system are punished. With his biting satire and delightful narrative detours he authentically demonstrates how humour and compassion ultimately provide the best means to fight back.

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