Em and the Big Hoom

by Jerry Pinto

~ ‘Em and The Big Hoom is an overwhelming achievement…a joyous read that leaves you chuckling and sad at once. It is a humdinger of a novel that is haunting in its beauty, in its evocation of a family dealing with mental degradation and loss. Pinto is a brilliant storyteller.’— Nawaid Anjum, The Asian Age ‘Jerry Pinto takes us through

At that point I realized what it meant to be a man in India. It meant knowing what one could do and what one could only get done. It meant being able to hold on to two patterns simultaneously. One was methodical, hierarchical, regulated and the outcomes depended on fate, chance, kings and desperate men. The other was intuitive, illicit and guaranteed. The trick was to know when to shift between the patterns, to peel the file off a table and give it to a peon, to speak easily of one’s cousin the minister or the archbishop.

Victories evanesce quickly enough. Failure hangs around you like a cloak and everyone is kind and pretends not to see it.