Bhar Chaukatil Aranyarudan

There was Sunil first. Sunil Geetaram Nikalje—a man struggling to find his own place in life, aspiring to become a writer. Born at the lowest rung of the caste hierarchy, yet indifferent to the concessions and benefits associated with his social position, he is a bespectacled, frail journalist in his thirties.

One day, by chance, he encounters Mallaraj Sidramappa Hosamuni, an unfortunate labourer who has died while fasting at the foot of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s statue in Ambedkar Chowk, Thane. It strikes Sunil that a poor man could sit on a hunger strike for an entire month in the middle of a busy square without anyone even bothering to ask him how he was doing.

This realization gives birth to a story, a quest, and a literary creation.

This novel belongs to Sunil, but it is also the story of Mallaraj’s life as written by Sunil. It is a novel that contains another novel within itself—a narrative within a narrative.