Prayaag Akbar’s second book is as thought-provoking as his first, Leila. Using a matter-of-fact style, Akbar draws a succinct portrait of Indian society caught in the glare of social media headlights. If life was a struggle to stay afloat for the earlier generations, it is a struggle to stay relevant for today’s generations.
The author’s strategy is to tell it like it is, and if the reader wants to infer that the story is a critique of things as they are, well, that is entirely the reader’s prerogative. We are introduced to Nisha and Mayank, strangers to each other, both denizens of Delhi. Nisha comes from a small hill town and palpably misses it even as she enjoys the perks of the big city like working for a Japanese confectionary company at a swanky mall, acquiring a big-city boyfriend, learning to recognise the soft and hard expressions of luxury.
She comes across as a practical girl who is ready to do whatever it takes to thrive in Delhi. Mayank piques the reader’s interest because he is an intelligent young man stuck making patriotic videos for a shrill YouTube channel. This content creator is a history buff, he can actually tell right from wrong even as he is stuck in his right-wing job, and most importantly, he has aspirations.
Even as the reader wonders where Mayank goes from here, he uses AI to morph an unknown girl’s photo into a picture of Mother India...
of course this is Mother India under attack from inimical men wearing skull caps and hurling rocks .