Manil Suri

Vishnu, the odd-job man in a Bombay apartment block, lies dying on the staircase landing. Around him the lives of the apartment dwellers unfold - the warring housewives on the first floor, the lovesick teenagers on the second, and the widower, alone and quietly grieving at the top of the building. In a fevered state Vishnu looks back on his love affair with the seductive Padmini and comedy becomes tragedy as his life draws to a close.

India, 1955: as the scars of Partition are just beginning to heal, seventeen-year-old Meera sits enraptured by Dev, who sings a song so infused with passion that it arouses in her the first flush of erotic longing. But it does not lead to a fairy-tale marriage. Dev's family is steeped in orthodoxy. Meera has no choice but to obey her in-laws, tolerate Dev's drunken fumblings and observe the most arduous of Hindu fasts. A move to Bombay, so that Dev can chase his dream of success as a Bollywood singer, seems like a fresh start, but soon that dream - and their marriage - turns to ashes. It is only when their son is born that things change. For the first time, Meera feels ready to shape her own destiny, to take control of her world