Quixotic retirees in Coorg and young newly-weds trying to eat meat; teenage boys travelling to Benares in the 19th century and a retiree with an anger-management problem in the face of an India whose right wing is rising. 14 well-crafted stories give us a sense of the daily Indian life of a wide cast of characters. Hasan's protagonists are, as always, living in their own heads a lot of the time, often whimsical and vulnerable outliers. Where is their place in the new order, where have they come from and where are they going?