In Custody

A frustrated small-town scholar lands the opportunity of a lifetime, but only encounters more frustration in Anita Desai’s touching comic novel."A major attempt to tackle serious themes... extraordinarily rich in incident and detail." - Sebastian FaulksWhen Deven is asked to interview India’s greatest Urdu poet, Nur, he sees an opportunity to escape the miseries of his narrow life. But Deven’s hope for fame and fulfilment soon turn to disaster. The dissolute old man he finds deep in the bazaars of Old Delhi bears no resemblance to the idol of his youth, and as Deven is fooled, cheated and bullied by Nur and the people who surround him, the whole project seems destined to end in a new kind of captivity."A wry, gently humorous novel, full of wisdom and restraint... The author chronicles India lovingly but it would be a mistake to think of her simply as an Indian writer, for her themes are universal." - The FInancial TimesAnita Desai is the author of many novels & short stories and has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times. She is the Emerita John E Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Royal Society of Literature. The book 'In Custody" , shortlisted for booker prize, is contemplated with various concerning issues of the World specifically India. These themes are status of Urdu Language in India, psychological and sociological elements of Indians and their traditions, the Scheming World , etc. Deven Sharma , a lecturer in a college, is the hero without heroism in the book. Murad and Mr.Jain are specifically the examples of a scheming World. Imtiaz Begum as a new woman, a genuine example of growing Feminism. Touching and wonderfully funny, In Custody is woven around the yearnings and calamities of a small town scholar in the north of India. An impoverished college lecturer, Deven, sees a way to escape from the meanness of his daily life when he is asked to interview India?s greatest Urdu poet, Nur? a project that can only end in disaster Meek and self-effacing, Deven is resigned to his life as a lecturer in an obscure college in Mirpore. When, unexpectadely, an old friend Murad, invites him to go to Delhi to interview the greatest living Urdu poet, Deven sees a chance both to achieve fame and to fulfil his dreams. Taking place in India, Deven is a meek and self-effacing college lecturer resigned to his unhappy marriage and his life in the dusty town of Mirpore Anita Desai. First Published In Great Britain By William Heinemann In 1984.