The Mad House

About the Book

The novel The Madhouse is an allegorical novel that chronicles the jarring transformations occurring in the psyche of the Indian society by the onslaught of liberalisation in the 1990s. It is in this reign of the free-market economy and excessive consumption that the nameless characters of The Madhouse find themselves.

In fact, in a way, there are only two characters in this novel. There is 'The Bazaar', representing the free - market forces, and then there is 'The Citizen', whose reincarnations within the various vignettes of the novel are trapped in the vicious cycle of distress and fears which manifest themselves in myriad situations. But, fundamentally, it is only one character. Somewhere, his dreams have been stolen, somewhere else, his memories have been abducted. In another situation, he has forgotten who he is and in yet another one, he is looking for a lock to safeguard himself from the prying eyes of the Bazaar, but the Bazaar is looking for him.

In this game of cat and mouse between the Citizen and the Bazaar, Dr Chaturvedi manages to capture the subtle as well as profound changes related to people's psyche, belief systems, notions of honour and selfrespect, politics and the dynamics within society that have occurred post-liberalisation.

About the Author: Gyan Chaturvedi has elevated Hindi satire to new heights after Harishankar Parsai and Sharad Joshi. With six novels, twelve satire collections, and over a thousand articles, he blends humor and social critique. A Padma Shri recipient, his writing explores politics, family life, relationships, and the contradictions of society.

About the Translator: Punarvasu Joshi, with a PhD in nanotechnology from Arizona State University, has translated 40 Hindi short stories into English for the anthology A Journey In Time. He edited a special issue of Rachna Samay on Michel Foucault, translating Foucault's works into Hindi.