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My Friend Sancho

My first book, My Friend Sancho, was published in May 2009, and went on to become the biggest selling debut novel released that year in India. It is a contemporary love story set in Mumbai, and had earlier been longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008. To learn more about the book, click here.


If you're interested, do join the Facebook group for My Friend Sancho


Click here for more about my publisher, Hachette India.


My posts on India Uncut about My Friend Sancho can be found here.


Bastiat Prize 2007 Winner

Recent entries

I’m All In: Confessions of a Poker Obsessive

This personal essay by me appears in the winter edition of Forbes Life India. I feel the ground sway…

‘No Touching, Only Seeing, Okay?’

I’m amazed that India hasn’t yet woken up to the fact that Himesh Reshammiya is the new Govinda. I…

Vishwa Bandhu Gupta and Cloud Computing

If you thought Ponytail’s speech the other day was funny, wait till you see this: Vishwa Bandhu Gupta, former…

The Sadness of Dogs

The New York Times reports: A video of a dog apparently mourning the death of his owner at a…

‘That is Not a Lump, Mr Beck, It is a Blessing’

Huffington Post reports: Glenn Beck called Hurricane Irene a “blessing” on his Friday radio show, saying it would teach…

01 May, 2008

The Old Man and the Street

The Times of India reports from Kolkata:

The bus stopped midway to get rid of him. The old man got down trembling. He leaned against the shutter of a closed shop, gasping for breath. Passersby saw him but didn’t offer help. They informed the Bantra police, who took hours to sort out if the case was under their jurisdiction. The man lay on the road unattended for three and a half hours until he died.

The emphasis is mine. Read the full story—at one point, when the police arrived…

… they dispersed the crowd and streamlined the traffic, but didn’t touch the old man. Instead, they informed the Shibpur police because the spot where he lay under the blazing sun was not under their jurisdiction.

To think that those cops get their salary because people like the gentleman in question pay their taxes—if not as income tax, then every time they make any purchase, for the government gets a cut of everything.

Also: I’m reminded of Dnyaneshwar Kulkarni.

Posted by Amit Varma in India | News

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