The Room Above The Gutter - Om Books

The Room Above The Gutter - Om Books

• Eighteen-year-old Ravi arrives in Delhi from Bhagalpur, with nothing but a dream. Khajoori Khas, the Yamuna Paar locality, becomes home away from home. A neighbourhood buzzing with migrants, their constant battle for survival, and a foul-smelling room above the gutter mirror his own uncertain future. His only anchor, his maasi, Lucky Mishra, is herself putting up a relentless fight to hold together a family and a fragile dream of belonging in the city.
• As Ravi navigates college life, odd jobs and his fractured sense of self, he is pulled into the orbits of three women. Alka, the embodiment of everything he yearns for; Priya, the impish girl who loves him unconditionally; and Kasturi, the mysterious woman across the street whose silences hide unsettling truths. When Kasturi is found dead, a disillusioned and dazed Ravi knows nothing better than to leave the lane. What follows is a journey through evolving identities, trapped in moral dilemmas, trying to bring justice to the ones who can no longer fight for themselves.
• Set in a restless, unforgiving Dilli that feeds on dreams even as it creates them, The Room Above the Gutter is a poignant coming-of-age novel about migrants, love and the long road to self-acceptance, where destiny is not escaped, but rewritten.