‘One and Three Quarters’: A survival tale of a village boy told with wit, irony and a touch of magic

In One and Three Quarters, Langdya – or Pitambar, as his father stubbornly called him – had been in Class 7 for about three years when I, the reader, first met him. His grades were as dismal as ever, and the weight of his father’s unrelenting expectations bore down on him. A man hardened by unfulfilled dreams, Langdya’s father demanded scholastic success from his son, a boy who seemed destined to fail. Fearing his father’s wrath, Langdya changed the zero on his marksheet to a thirty, in what seemed like a simple act of survival. Yet, this small deception set off a domino of events that would change his life in ways he couldn’t possibly have imagined.

Survival of the fittest

Langdya discovers an illicit affair between the school principal and the music teacher. With this secret, he inadvertently becomes a “fixer”, navigating through a landscape of moral ambiguity. From blackmailing to leveraging political connections, Langdya evolves into a cunning player in the system; his escapades in Harangul don’t stop. As Langdya’s cunning grows, so does the scope of his ambitions. His exploits in the village lead him to Mumbai, the political and cultural hub of India. Langdya’s sharp wit and survival instincts serve him well...

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