Run and Hide

Indian essayist and author Mishra (The Romantics) explores an India in transition. Longstanding caste barriers are beginning to break down when Arun is born into a low-caste family in a small railway town. He throws himself into his studies, earning a place at the distinguished India Institute of Technology. The institute proves to be a way out for its low-caste students, who jump into the jet-set world of the rich and famous as soon as they graduate. Arun chooses a different path and returns to his small town in the Himalayas to care for his newly abandoned mother. He later falls in love and runs away to London with Alia, a wealthy non-practicing Muslim. Their upper-tier life is fabulous, and their love is real, but will it be enough to overcome his past? Narrator Mikhail Sen, a native Hindi speaker, brings out the musicality of Hindi speech, allowing listeners an authentic experience of the language. Sen’s ability to seamlessly code-switch between characters, castes, and communities provides listeners with an aural treat.