The Little Flower Girl

A story teller unravels the extraordinary stories of some ordinary people. On our journey through life we meet so many people--many we forget but some leave memories that refuse to fade away.This is a collection of true stories-of actual meetings and encounters that the author had with these people over the years as a journalist. The 11-year-old flower seller with her unfulfilled dreams, the gay men forced into lives of heterosexual unhappiness,the heart-wrenching stories of abandoned HIV positive children whom no-one wants to adopt. There are poignant stories of old women in old age homes.Among the exploited prostitutes there stands out Sandhya who proudly describes how being a sex-worker has enabled her to educate and marry off her siblings.Poor home-less pavement dwellers live together amicably regardless of their religion.One old lady tells the author:"here everyone has only one caste-Ezhari jaati-(the caste of the poor). Yet what shines through these stories isn't despair but hope and triumph of the human spirit against all odds.