Above the sector walls rises a Skydome, inside which the air is filtered by purifiers “working day and night”. The sectors are green and leafy, with wide avenues and bungalows “encircled by hillocked lawns”. All the good schools have been bought up by individual sectors, so that children cannot possibly forge friendships with anyone not like themselves, as they once might have done in a “mixed” school. This is a world in which all possible divisions of caste, religion and class have been publicly embraced, each “high” identity zealously guarded and physically engraved into the city’s architecture.īelonging and unbelonging is decided by birth, and mixing is strictly discouraged. The sectors are strictly segregated by caste and community: “the Tamil Brahmin Sector, Leuva Patel Residency, Bohra Muslim Zone, Catholic Commons, Kanyakubj Quarters, Sharif Muslimeen Precinct, Maithil Acres, Chitpavan Heights, Syrian Christian Co-op, Kodava Martials.”. The locale is an unnamed city crisscrossed by “flyroads”, from which cars descend only to make their way into gated sectors, protected by unscalable high walls.

Prayaag Akbar’s debut novel Leila is set in such a future – a future that is, in all but the details, really already here. Like seeds already planted, it’s only a matter of time before the stalks push their way up through the dark, loamy earth, their reality undeniable in bright sunlight. The most terrifying futures are the ones contained in the present.

Watch: Policeman stops AR Rahman’s Pune concert for running over time and violating noise curfew.

Prithviraj Chauhan: Which stories about the king have been made up over the years?.

Rajkamal Chaudhary’s short stories give glimpses into newly independent India and its weariness.

What is the future of the museum? Romila Thapar on why the past needs to be understood in context.

How Satyajit Ray achieved historical accuracy in his first Hindi film ‘Shatranj ke Khilari’.

Caught on CCTV: US school principal unlocks garbage bin to find bear emerging.The changing map of India from 1 AD to the 20th century.How Mughal badshahs and begums became a source of inspiration for 19th-century French playing cards.Watch: Dog ‘drives’ ride-on lawn mower in yard, stuns passerby.Inside the hellfires of India’s brick industry.The tale of ‘Daku’ Sultana and his unlikely friendship with a British police officer.IPL 2023: Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir fined 100% of match fees for spat – here’s what happened.

Prayaag akbar leila