The arrival of an alluring cosmopolitan woman in a conservative Mumbai suburb causes a stir amongst her neighbors.
When a wide-eyed 13-year-old boy pursues a friendship with her, he stumbles upon her secret past and is thrust headlong into adulthood.
Bharat is a 13-year-old boy struggling with adolescence in a patriarchal Mumbai suburb. His parents’ marriage is in crisis, the building bully, Rocky, constantly torments him for being too girly, and his only friend, Pappu, is a childish 11-year old. When Meera, a beautiful cosmopolitan woman from the big city, moves in next door, she immediately causes a stir. Bharat is drawn to her and pursues an unlikely friendship.
Meera, lonely and vulnerable, finds Bharat’s innocence a welcome change in a sea of ogling Indian men. When she introduces him to jazz and teaches him how to dance with a woman, he glimpses a world of possibilities he is eager to experience.
But when he stumbles upon a dark secret from Meera’s past, Bharat is forced to choose: Is she a woman of bad character like everyone says, or is she the smart, sensitive person he knows? It’s only a matter of time before the grown ups in the building find out, and what Bharat does next will determine the kind of man he will grow up to be.
“He folded his fear into a perfect rose. He held it out in the palm of his hand. She took it from him and put it in her hair."
– Arundhati Roy,
The God of Small Things
