Simon Jesukumar, an ageing widower in Chennai, passionately aspires to do something worthwhile with what remains of his life. Dominated by his wife during their otherwise happy married life, he struggles to break free from the haunting memories of the iron hand with which she led him. His aspirations are stirred by his nagging guilt about the slum, optimistically called Sitara, next door. As the story plunges into the heart of the slum, it brings together the most unlikely characters. Simon begins to understand why good intentions and small acts of mercy are no answer to the problems of a section of humanity he never knew.
Simon’s dilemma is ours: How can, or how should, the well-off help the poor?
Coming from one of the finest chroniclers of modern Indian life, The Story That Must Not be Told holds up a mirror to a moving, unseen, and deeply unsettling reality. |
