Delhi down under

If ever there was a city which provided the perfect setting for noirish crime fiction, Delhi is it. The award-winning attempts of writers like Aravind Adiga, who underlined the ugliness that shadows the India Rising story, find an echo in this collection of stories.
Hirsh Sawhney has brought together Indian and Indian-origin writers to tell hard-hitting tales about Delhi's underbelly.Anybody who has studied in Delhi University's North Campus will find an instant connect with Siddharth Chowdhury's 'Hostel' and Zorawar Singh Shokeen, the landlord of a boys' hostel. 'Last In, First Out' by Irwin Allen Sealy is a less morose, yet equally gripping, mystery story set in the Delhi Ridge. Here an autorickshaw driver, after helping a rape victim and her boyfriend, takes it upon himself to find the culprits and some justice. Nalinaksha Bhattacharya's 'Hissing Cobras' , set in middle class RK Puram, enacts the troubled relationships between saas and bahu. Unlike most reallife cases, here it's the mother-inlaw who is eventually at the receiving end.
Delhi Noir moves away from the Great Indian Novel format, for which, in Sawhney words, "publishers , whether based in Delhi, London, or New York, had an insatiable appetite" . The stories are true to the spirit of this ancient city - now aspiring to be a world city - which can in turn be malicious , unforgiving and ruthless, especially to women. Talking of which, if violence, particularly the kind meted out to women, unsettles you, then this book isn't for you. Delhi Noir has violence aplenty - both sexual and physical.
This book is part of a series set in global cities. It would be a no-brainer for the publishers to think next about a Mumbai Noir.