Vanity Bagh

Vanity Bagh

Inspired by the legend of Abu Hathim, aging don of Vanity Bagh, Imran Jabbari and his friends form a gang called 51⁄2 Men in their mohalla of Vanity Bagh. They are hired to dispense a batch of stolen scooters to different corners of the city; not until the city rocks with scooter bombs does Imran realize that they have been involved in a terrorist act. One of the prime accused in the 11/11 serial blasts, Imran is destined to live in captivity for the next fourteen years. He kills time plotting jailbreak until he is assigned to the bookmaking section of the prison. The new job equips him with a new facility: each time he opens a book and stares at its blank pages, he sees them scribbled with tales from Vanity Bagh. Imran thus traces the history of animosity between Vanity Bagh, nicknamed Little Pakistan, and Mehendi, a Hindu neighbourhood.The solitude and reflection that characterize Imran’s narrative is undercut by communal tension and a simmering violence. Touched with a wistful small-town feeling in the midst of a teeming city, Vanity Bagh is a darkly comic tale.

Vanity Bagh

Discourses of Freedom

The present collection of essays entitled, Discourses of Freedom seeks to unravel the nuances of the concept of freedom and its malleability. The collection is divided into three sections. The first section emphasizes a critical evaluation of the human rights, law and liberty. The second section titled "Gender, Politics and Agency" offers fresh perspectives on the curtailment of women's autonomy within familiar yet intimate spaces and also highlights the challenges that confront the LGBT community. The third section focuses on systems that underlie, in the representation of minority culture, especially in the realm of creative fiction. This book seeks to engage in a critical discourse, encouraging further exploration and research