Before I commence on the merits of this novel, I must commend the cover design by Bonita Vaz-Shimray which visualizes and encapsulates the plot brilliantly. Then, try as I might, I cannot ignore being struck by the name of the author, Prayaag Akbar. Being born and brought up under the ramparts of Akbar’s Fort in Allahabad, the author’s name, for me, symbolizes the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb I grew up with in the Mother India of my time—the erosion of which, this novel seems to be highlighting. Now, as this book is written, the socio-cultural, political and economic environment of India has transformed or transmogrified, take it whichever way suits you.
In a lucid style, unadorned by unnecessary literary flourishes, the writer ushers us into this new India where love between young people is no longer a gunaah as in the ‘non expressive love and romance’ between Chandar and Sudha in Gunaahon ka Devta, 1949: a love which is most passionately expressed when Chandar silently follows Sudha’s rickshaw on his bicycle down the Company Bagh Road.