The Garbage Pickers

The Garbage Pickers is a coming-of-age story about Nikki, a nineteen-year-old who lives with his mother in the affluent suburb of Golf Links, New Delhi. Nikki has a sweet tooth, has been expelled from his boarding school, is fond of boys as well as girls, and is something of a philosopher. An evening with Sweety, a girl from a call-center, sparks a love affair. Her subsequent murder and his hunt for her killer brings his world into the orbit of Bhaskar -- a vagrant who arrives from Madras after being driven insane by a horrific crime -- as well as a community of rag-pickers fighting a losing battle with toxic waste imported by an international consortium run by drug smugglers and government officials. The secret of Sweety's death emerges as a result of a series of adventures that include an extended sojourn in Tihar Jail, Asia's largest prison. Set amid the conflicts of globalization and a rapidly changing urban society, this is a story about sensuality in the midst of opulence and squalor, and about love, between boy and girl, son and mother, brother and sister, man and fellow-man.