Echoes of Gasping Souls

Book excerpt: Four strangers are stuck in a hotel in Mumbai. Sitam, a Nepali speaking man from Sikkim, works in the dusty offices of Indian bureaucracy. He has seen racism at its worst during his University days. He is a frustrated Indian bureaucrat. Kulawant Kaur from Amritsar is on her first solo trip at the age of 62, under the pretence of a pilgrimage. This trip is her revolt against the inescapable North-Indian patriarchy. Razia is a Malayali Muslim married to a Hindu. The only identity that matters to her is that of a woman. She hates it when others want her to be a Muslim or a Malayali. Manoj is a typical Engineer-MBA, highly driven, ambitious and suave. His superiority complex is nauseating. Sunil Paswan, a Dalit from Bihar is the hotel manager. He survived caste riots in his native village 30 years ago, after which he moved to Mumbai and has never gone back home. They hate each other, hate being forced to live together and hate that the torment will last almost a month. How do things play out and what happens at the end? The story changes when hearts and minds slowly begin to open up…