Virgin Gingelly

V. Sanjay Kumar

I hope to be remembered in this street, amongst the lame, as the husband of the one with amorous thoughts and sexy legs. ‘There used to be a writer here in this empty house,’ they will say. ‘He had a porous mind.’ A stubborn writer struggles with his stories in a city that has been encroached. The last bastion is an urban agraharam near Mylapore where a bunch of misfits perform a strange kutcheri. Among these are existential street dogs, short-changed lovers, disgruntled housewives, runaways with bombs, veshti-wearing elders, and nihilist teenagers coming to terms with their sexuality. With a singular desire to escape, these characters visit each other’s stories, creating a layered narrative of loss and ennui. In language both gritty and humorous, and often surprisingly poetic, V. Sanjay Kumar’s narrative, set in modern middle-class, housing-cooperative Chennai, tackles the simple conundrum of being and belonging.