SIGNED EDITION: The Householder by Amitabha Bagchi

Naresh Kumar, PA to Shri RK Asthana, IAS, is his boss' doorkeeper. There is a share for Naresh in the bounties that flow in through that door, and there has been for years. But he is a man besieged. His married daughter is having trouble conceiving, his son's call centre job might be a cover for something murkier, and his wife expects him to solve these problems. Then there is Pinki Kaur, a colleague and his friend's widow, whose presence in the office stirs responses in him that he can neither submit to nor suppress. With uncommon acuity, Amitabha Bagchi writes of a world where favours are currency, where access to power sometimes feels like a prerequisite for survival, where power can be both total and ephemeral. The Householder is a view from within this world, an examination of the moral condition of our times.