Books

Mr Ali’s flourishing marriage bureau seems to have chalked up another success when his ward, Pari, receives a surprise proposal from a rich, handsome aristocrat. But why is the boy’s family so keen to get him married to Pari - an orphan, a widow, and now a single mother?

Meanwhile communist insurgents on the warpath in India’s rural hinterland, and gays on the march for their rights in the big cities of Bombay and Delhi seem a world away. Both will soon be invading the peaceful lives of Mr and Mrs Ali, their son Rehman and their able assistant Aruna…