Episode 2

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

Uncle and nephew, Ishvar and Om have come to the city to escape the caste violence in their native village. They start working as tailors in the cramped flat of Dina, a middle-aged Parsi widow. Maneck, a reluctant student from the mountains, rents a room from Dina and the four strangers form an unlikely bond 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.