Dishari, a fourth-year engineering student, thinks of her treatment of a first-year girl as nothing but acceptable ‘ragging’ – the bullying of younger pupils by their seniors – something she herself experienced when younger. But when a suicide attempt by this first-year student – combined with a series of trumped-up charges – leads to Dishari’s imprisonment, she finds a wealth of injustices lying at the heart of the supposedly civil society that is India, and is forced to question not only herself, but the very foundations upon which human societies are built. 

Debalina Haldar grew up Kolkata, and is the winner of the Critics Choice Award by Illuminati 2011.

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