Showing results by author "Ayeesha Menon" in All Categories

Award-winning writer Ayeesha Menon's reworking of Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit is set amongst the Catholic community in modern-day Mumbai. Convinced his relatives are after his money, Martin Chuzzlewit, a wealthy old landlord, has adopted orphan girl Mary as his carer with the understanding she will be housed and fed as long as he lives - but on his death, she will inherit nothing. But when his grandson Mickey falls in love and wishes to marry Mary, Martin's plans are thrown into disarray.

When Ram Mohammad Thomas, an orphaned, uneducated street kid from Mumbai, wins a billion rupees on a live TV quiz show, he finds himself beaten up and thrown in jail by the programme's producers. During his interrogation he explains, through a series of flashbacks, how he knew the answers to all the show's questions. What he describes about his life is jaw-dropping: "You learn a lot about the world by living in it." he says.

Mowgli, an orphan boy, is being brought up by "the Wolves", a gang of petty criminals in a tenement block, and quickly learns how to survive in that world. But when the villainous Tiger Khan threatens Mowgli's life, two residents of the tenement block, "black panther" Bagheera and the "bear" Baloo, offer to help him escape and he embarks on a journey of self-discovery through the city.