Corridor - Sarnath Banerjee

The story of Corridor revolves around an enlightened dispenser of tea, Jehangir Rangoonwalla, who has a shop in the heart of Lutyens' Delhi, Connaught Place. He also sells second hand books and dispenses wisdom to his customers. All of the main characters of the novel have this shop as their common local haunt and Mr. Rangoonwalla interacts with these residents of Delhi when they visit his shop and at times gives them his words of wisdom. They come to him for tea, books, conversation, and advice. The story is about a plethora of characters, each from a different strata of society and different background. These customers are Brighu, passionate for obscure collectibles and a real love life, Shintu, the newly-married on a quest of the ultimate aphrodisiac, and Digital Dutta, a person mostly torn between an H-1B visa and Karl Marx. Dutta is portrayed as a man who lives in his head. Each of these characters has a story of his own and the author ties them together in a brilliant manner for his book. While narrating their stories, Banerjee subtly touches the greyer shades of their lives and presents them vividly to the reader. The entire novel has been captured in the corridors of contemporary Connaught Place in Delhi and Calcutta. Various pictures and objects have been shown in the background frame and the author ensures to refer them, thereby touching upon the different cultural references. Sarnath Banerjee presents a different flavor to the art of storytelling by mixing various other art forms such as sketches, illustrations, and photographs. These heighten the impact on the reader in a beautiful way. The author uses an imaginative alchemy of words and images, of a script and artwork, to present the alienation and fragmented reality of the Indian urban life. Thus, the novel presents a delightful tale with interesting twists and turns.