in dull and dusty pipalnagar each day is like another and there is not exactly despair but resignation even the dreams here are small adrift among them the narrator arun a struggling writer of detective novels in urdu waits for inspiration to write a blockbuster meanwhile he seeks reassurance in love and finds it in unusual places with the young prostitute kamla wise beyond her years and the orphan suraj homeless and an epileptic yet surprisingly optimistic about the future this is a memorable story about small lives with all the hallmarks of classic ruskin bond prose nostalgia charm underplayed humour and quiet wisdom