Ayyan Mani works in the Institute of Theory and Researchas a personal assistant to a brilliant, insufferable astronomer,Arvind Acharya, who is obsessed with his theory aboutmicroscopic aliens falling to earth. Mani is one of the thousandsof men stranded in the slums of Mumbai, but ever theopportunist, Mani is also an astute observer and sly eavesdropper,and he makes sure he knows everything that is going on inthe Institute, listening in on private conversations, and opening,reading and resealing confidential couriered letters.
Partly to entertain himself, partly to cheer up his once animatedbut now work-worn wife, partly to bolster his ten-year-old son’s confidence, Mani weaves an outrageous fictionaround the boy — a fiction that captures the interest of his superiorsat the Institute and threatens to set into motion an unstoppableand disastrous chain of events. And Mani, strugglingto keep his own dreams alive, sees opportunity in everything.
Ayyan Mani works in the Institute of Theory and Researchas a personal assistant to a brilliant, insufferable astronomer,Arvind Acharya, who is obsessed with his theory aboutmicroscopic aliens falling to earth. Mani is one of the thousandsof men stranded in the slums of Mumbai, but ever theopportunist, Mani is also an astute observer and sly eavesdropper,and he makes sure he knows everything that is going on inthe Institute, listening in on private conversations, and opening,reading and resealing confidential couriered letters.
Partly to entertain himself, partly to cheer up his once animatedbut now work-worn wife, partly to bolster his ten-year-old son’s confidence, Mani weaves an outrageous fictionaround the boy — a fiction that captures the interest of his superiorsat the Institute and threatens to set into motion an unstoppableand disastrous chain of events. And Mani, strugglingto keep his own dreams alive, sees opportunity in everything.