VIRGIN GINGELLY

I hope to be remembered in this street amongst the lame as the husband of the one with amorous thoughts and sexy legs. 'There used to be a writer here in this empty house' they will say. 'He had a porous mind.' A stubborn writer struggles with his stories in a city that has been encroached. The last bastion is an urban agraharam near Mylapore where a bunch of misfits perform a strange kutcheri. Among these are existential street dogs short-changed lovers disgruntled housewives runaways with bombs veshti-wearing elders and nihilist teenagers coming to terms with their sexuality. With a singular desire to escape these characters visit each other's stories creating a layered narrative of loss and ennui. In language both gritty and humorous and often surprisingly poetic V. Sanjay Kumar's narrative set in modern middle-class housing-cooperative Chennai tackles the simple conundrum of being and belonging.>