Hashiye Par: For a Tree to Grow

Madan belongs to a marginalised community in the Chenab valley of Jammu that traditionally could not own farmland. Sickly and passive, he fishes the river each dawn and sells his catch to a roadside eatery, keeping his wife and four children in a hut of cane and grass. He dreams of a brick house, schooling and government jobs for his children and enough to eat. Then his eldest son Kamal wins a place at an engineering college in Srinagar, and the family's hopes of escaping poverty come to rest on him, while politics and the gap between welfare schemes and their delivery stand in the way.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Length

161 pages in the original

Genres

Family, Politics (assigned by AI)

Set in

India

First published

2010

ISBN

9780199450343 (Oxford University Press, India)