Product Description

Asked to interview India's greatest poet, Nur, Deven sees a way to escape the miseries of life as a small-town scholar. But the old man he finds deep in the bazaars of Old Delhi bears no resemblance to the idol of his youth. Deven is fooled, bullied and cheated, and drawn into a new captivity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #175241 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 225 pages

Customer Reviews

A beautiful novel
Touching and wonderfully funny. "In Custody" is woven around the yearnings and calamities of Deven, a small-town scholar from Mirpore in the north of India. An improvised college lecturer, Deven sees a way to escape from the meanness of his daily life when he is asked to interview India's greatest Urdu poet, Nur. But every attempt will only end up in desaster.
A beautiful book, mingling melancholy, disappointment and lots of humour. I recommend it most warmly.

A bitter-sweet, hilarious account of mid-life crisis
I read this book maybe 15 years ago, and laughed from start to finish as the disillusioned lecturer discovers the flaws of his lifetime hero, and battles with the frustrations of married life, an unsatisfactory job and the general hassles of everyday life in India. Re-reading it at 40, in an unsatisfactory job, living and working in a poor and stressful area of London, it seemed a lot less satirical, and rather more painful read, but still very funny. And it made me change jobs!

Memorable and poignant, beautifully told
Set in Mirapur and Delhi this lovely novel concerns Deven a teacher at a small college. He is asked to go and interview the poet Nur for an Urdu jounal. Deven is a huge admirer of Nur's and feeling himself unappreciated and over looked is delighted at what he sees as his big chance. Deven's fear however is that the project can only lead to disaster.

Deven is drawn into what he sees as the unsettling world of an ageing Nur. His second wife, seems a harsh and jealous woman, who wants all Nur's fame and recognition for herself. The interview becomes a protracted affair - involving the hire of a second hand tape recorder and a boy to opperate it. This inevitably leads to futher problems.
Deven is a somewhat pitiful character - although one you desperatly want to see succeed. A wonderful novel, that stays in the memory long after you've finished it.