Episode 1

Dramatisation of Rohinton Mistry's acclaimed novel about India's underclass.

Two tailors - uncle and nephew, Ishvar and Om - come to the city to escape from the caste violence in their native village. They are employed by a Parsi woman, Dina Dalal, who runs a sweatshop from her apartment and is struggling to preserve her independence. She has a lodger too - a reluctant student, Maneck, from the mountains.

As their initial suspicion of each other turns to friendship and then love, their lives take dramatic and often shocking turns against a backdrop of India in crisis, during "the Emergency" of the mid-1970s - a period marked by huge political unrest and human rights violations.

A comedy, a tragedy, and a story of the triumph of the human spirit under inhuman conditions.

Music: Sacha Putnam
Sound Design: Steve Bond

Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and Kewel Karim from the novel by Rohinton Mistry

Producer: Nadir Khan
Director: John Dryden

A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4.