Maree and the Prince

Chandigarh is a city that represents the India born in 1947 after independence from the British Raj. The protagonist is a prince of an old royal family of the Punjab. He has been brought up like a prince but is out of sync with his royal heritage. He is democratic to an excessive degree. The novel is his journey through a haze of drinking, through atheism, to a certain faith in some God. On the way he meets his secretary, Bible Maree; his faithful servant, Bhader; and the healing religious leader, Peer Baba. The book is also a statement about the sexual mores of India. One of the princes friend advocates the establishment of legal brothels for the frustrated males of India. He also offers it as a solution to the high number of rapes in India. Maree keeps company to the debauched prince, who is a writer. She decodes his drunken writing and types it into a computer. The novel is also a journey of Prince Ravee through the world of ghosts that reside in and around his penthouse in Turail.