Author Description

Chinnamani, like any other elevenyearold boy, goes to school, is fond of cricket and movies. He lives in a Bengaluru slum where drunken domestic tiffs often lead to physical abuse, little children are brought up by their siblings, young girls are married off because they are pregnant, and gods possess men to answer questions about the future.It is a brutal world where living is a daily battle. With the arrival of social activists, the families begin to dream of a better life in pucca houses on a land which they can call their own. But when they are ordered to relocate within a month, they are devastated. They begin a fight and all hell breaks loose on the slum. Narrated through multiple voices the reality of class disparities, gender inequities, urban migration, corruption and apathy of government officials in postindependent India, Chinnamani s World is a disturbing and penetrating yet frequently amusing look at life in an Indian slum.