PALASH KRISHNA MEHROTRA WRITES ABOUT PROSTITUTES, CROSS DRESSERS, MURDERERS, DRUG ADDICTS, STUDENTS AND STALKERS, PORTRAYING THEIR PERVERSIONS AND VULNERABILITIES WITH EQUAL INSIGHT, TAKING US DEEP INTO THE DARK AND SEAMY SOUL OF INDIA.

SET IN THE MURKY UNDERBELLY OF BIG CITIES AND SMALL TOWNS, SLUMS AND DOTCOMS, COLLEGE HOSTELS AND RENTED ROOMS, EUNUCH PARK: FIFTEEN STORIES OF LOVE AND DESTRUCTION IS A COLLECTION LIKE NO OTHER. GRITTY, GRIM AND DEPRAVED, THESE ARE CANDID VIGNETTES OF AN INDIA MOST OF US ARE AFRAID TO ACKNOWLEDGE.

PALASH KRISHNA MEHROTRA WAS BORN IN MUMBAI IN 1975 AND WAS EDUCATED AT ST STEPHEN’S COLLEGE, DELHI, THE DELHI SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD. THE EDITOR OF RECESS: THE PENGUIN BOOK OF SCHOOLDAYS, HE IS ALSO A CONTRIBUTING EDITOR AT ROLLING STONE AND WRITES A REGULAR COLUMN FOR MAIL TODAY. PALASH LIVES IN DEHRA DUN WITH HIS GRANDMOTHER. HE IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON A NON-FICTION BOOK ON YOUNG INDIA, THE BUTTERFLY GENERATION.

EUNUCH PARK IS HIS FIRST SHORT-STORY COLLECTION.

Cover photograph by Ann Giordano/CORBIS Cover design by Bhavi Mehta

‘PALASH KRISHNA MEHROTRA TAKES US FOR A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE TO DARK PLACES THAT FEW OF US WOULD DARE TO EXPLORE ALONE. IN TURNS AUDACIOUS, GROTESQUE, AND UNEXPECTEDLY TENDER, HE ACHIEVES, IN HIS TAUTLY STRUCTURED FICTIONS, WHAT ACCLAIMED NOVELISTS OFTEN FAIL TO MASTER. THE MOST EXCITING SOUTH ASIAN DEBUT IN YEARS’

–Aamer Hussein

‘PALASH MEHROTRA IS A SHORT STORY WRITER OF GREAT NATURAL GIFTS, NEVER DEVOID OF VERVE AND ENERGY AND DELIGHT HOWEVER BLEAK OR UNHAPPY HIS SUBJECT MATTER. TRAUMATIC THOUGH HIS TERRAIN OFTEN IS, MEHROTRA’S REAL THEME IS THE INDEFATIGABLE IMPULSE TOWARDS LIFE AND TRANSFORMATION. THIS MAKES HIS BEST STORIES—AMONG THE BEST I’VE READ IN A LONG TIME—AT ONCE CAUTERIZING AND CURIOUSLY UPLIFTING’

—Amit Chaudhuri

Copyright

PENGUIN BOOKS

UK | Canada | Ireland | Australia
New Zealand | India | South Africa

Penguin Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.

This collection published 2009

Copyright © Palash Krishna Mehrotra 2009

The moral right of the author has been asserted

ISBN: 978-0-143-09992-5

This digital edition published in 2016.

e-ISBN: 978-8-184-75057-7

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

For Amma and Inu

Dancing with Men