Kirjahaku

Leila does for the barbarity of contemporary Indian nationalism what The Handmaid's Tale did for the yoke of patriarchy. It is urgent, gripping, topical, disturbing, and announces a talent we'll be talking about for years to come. - Neel Mukherjee Soon to be adapted for the screen as a Netflix Original Every year on Leila's birthday Shalini kneels by the wall with a little yellow spade and scoops dry earth to make a pit for two candles. One each for herself and for Riz, the husband at her side. But as Shalini walks from the patch of grass where she held her vigil the man beside her melts away. It is sixteen years since they took her, her daughter's third birthday party, the last time she saw the three people she loves most dearly: her mother, her husband, her child.

Shalini will never forget her daughter Leila's third birthday party: it was the last time she saw her alive. Sixteen years have passed and Shalini's life is unrecognizable. Her husband gone: beaten and dragged from their home the night Leila disappeared. Shalini, once privileged, is now disgraced. She trawls the streets desperate to discover where Leila now lives - if she lives at all. In this repressive state, where tradition and purity are valued above all, those outside the city walls - forced to live in filth and oppressive heat - are less than nothing. But can Shalini find a way back in? Will she see Leila again?

एका डिजीटाइज्ड शहरात नजीकच्या भविष्यकाळात कधीतरी शुचितेच्या, शुद्धतेच्या हव्यासापोटी समाजांना विभाजित करणार्]या आणि त्यांच्यावर मर्यादा घालणार्]या भिंती उभ्या राहतात. त्या भिंतींमागे कडक नागरी शिस्त असते. त्याला एके काळची श्रीमंत आणि काहीसा स्वच्छंदी स्वभाव असलेली शालिनी बळी पडते. एका दुःखद उन्हाळ्यात लैला ही तिची मुलगी तिच्यापासून दुरावते. त्यानंतर सलग सोळा वर्षं शालिनी लैलाचा शोध घेत असते. सभोवतालची देखरेख यंत्रणा आणि लबाड रिपीटर्स यांच्या तडाख्यात शालिनी बाजूला फेकली जाते; पण फक्त तिच्या मुलीच्या शोधामुळेच ती पुढे पुढे जात br>राहते. त्यानंतर काय घडतं ही प्रेमाची, विश्वासाची आणि या सर्वांहूनही अधिक प्रमाणात वैफल्याची कथा आहे.