Suket, Raghu and Shams are no strangers to taking on powerful political interests.They've never shied away from speaking their minds, with words or on thestreets.And they're used to a few bones being broken every now and then for it.But something feels wrong about the state of affairs in the country now whichthey can't quite put their finger on. Increasingly hard living conditions are metwith breathless praise for the great work of development by the government.A politics of identity-of the religious kind-has all but replaced the pursuitof social justice.And people's sentiments are so easily hurt that just about anydivergent word you speak may bring a mob to your door.What has gone sowrong?Why does it feel like the entire nation has been lobotomized?There are days when the three friends think they are close to an answer. Butthey have no idea how little they know.In any case, their time's up.They're going to find out tonight.The NationalCommission for Hurt Sentiments is bringing them in for a'friendly interaction'.Purushottam Agrawal's NaCoHuS is a cautionary tale of a splintering nationat the mercy of a dangerously powerful government. In alternatingly comicaland evocative prose, it brings us face to face with a dystopia that lies not insome distant future but may already be upon us.
