Where are the Djinn ?

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

By Deepak Anappara 

The story opens up with the introduction of a spirit named Mento, who even after he is dead still looks after the poor slum boys who worked underneath him building railway lines in India. Mento does not play that big a role in the story.

The story does not showcase the djinn as much as it showcases what life is like loving in a poor Bhasti or slum. The houses are one room which houses four to five people. People go outside to use the facility. There is dirt everywhere and people do not have enough to really make ends meat.

The story showcases another facet of life in India, that of the missing children. About 180 children go missing in India daily often times never to be hear of again. What happens to them no one really knows. Are they used in an organ racket, labor exploitation or something even worse.

In the bhasti near the Boot Bazaar children are starting to go missing. First is Bahador then Omvir and soon the list goes on. People begin to worry w out the missing children. They try to get the police to take action but their efforts are in effective . Due to the futility of the search Jaya and his friend Pari become detectives and try to find their missing friends.

The Bhasti is filled with characters like drunken Lalu, quarter Faisal. Lalu is the drunken father of Bahador. He beats the child and the child runs away. A similar story is behind all the missing children. Trouble at home. Some people think the kids ran away. A smog like haze lingers over the Bhasti. As the children run away they are greeted by strange people who appear to come out of the smog.

The case of the missing children vexes the community so greatly that there are riots against Muslims as there is a fear that it is Muslims who are kidnapping Hindu children. Eventually innocent Muslims get arrested . They do find a culprit which leads to showing how the rich get treated better than the others. Unfortunately no djinn are involved. The worst monsters are always human beings.