Introduction

This novel intertwines several untold stories. One is that of India's NGO sector, and the young women and men who left their comfort zones and went off into remote villages, worked with poor and vulnerable communities, and tried to make a difference; the story of the work they did, the choices they made, and the challenges they faced.

Another is that of the Sodhas, refugees from Sindh (Pakistan) who settled in India after the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars; their journey into India, their years interned in camps, and their resettlement in the Thar desert.

The narratives are woven together in this tale of a young man who spends three years in an NGO working in a remote corner of western Rajasthan in the early 1990s and then thirty years later in search of what he left behind. Does he find it? What has changed? And last, but not least, where does he go from here?

Sheruvala is set in an India few have visited, among people few have met, and it describes events few are aware of. It mixes fact with fiction and humour with horror, and it gives voice to atypical beliefs and attitudes. In the process, it introduces readers to unfamiliar rationalities in a forgotten corner of this diverse and exciting country.