“This is a comic novel of 21st century India, an India where the mobile phone is ubiquitous and where tradition and modernity are locked in conflict, where the conflict between the religious and the secular becomes more pronounced as India launches into a rapid phase of capitalist transformation. The picaresque is quite engrossingly managed, as Om the protagonist negotiates a tricky terrain of Hindu fundamentalism, the comic satire and ironic humour sharp, biting and engaging”
- Dr. Kim Cheng Boey, from University of Newcastle, Australia

Om is a seventeen-year old boy whose family belongs to a Hindu sect. While his father is an atheist, his mother is a strong devotee of Goddess Durga. Surprisingly, however, Om is afraid of Hindu gods and has “converted” to ‘the God of his choice’.

Om along with his parents lives in a bungalow that has occupied only a small portion of a big plot...