Leila

(Hardback, Main)

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Description

Every year on Leila's birthday Shalini kneels by the wall with a little yellow spade and scoops dry earth to make a pit for two candles. One each for herself and for Riz, the husband at her side.

But as Shalini walks from the patch of grass where she held her vigil the man beside her melts away. It is sixteen years since they took her, her daughter's third birthday party, the last time she saw the three people she loves most dearly: her mother, her husband, her child.

There are thirty-two candle stubs buried in that lawn, and Shalini believes her search is finally drawing to a close. When she finds Leila, she will return and dig up each and every one.

Author Bio

Prayaag Akbar was born in Calcutta in 1982. He studied economics at Dartmouth College and comparative politics at the London School of Economics, and spent a year at Routledge, UK as a publicity assistant. He has been an editor at scroll.in and the Sunday Guardian and a reporter with Outlook magazine. His award-winning reports and commentary have examined various aspects of marginalization in India. His work has appeared in Caravan, The Cricket Monthly, Mint, Indian Express and India Today, among others. He lives in Bombay with his wife and their cat and tweets under @unessentialist.