In Moazzamabad, UP, too large to be a town and too backward to be a city, a young man stabs a police inspector and is beaten to death. The last words he speaks are, My name is Jimmy the Terrorist. Journalists descend on the town, like shrill birds , and a long-time resident decides to tell a story that none of them will know. Jimmy was once Jamaal, son of Rafiq Ansari of Rasoolpur Mohalla, a Muslim neighbourhood in a Hindu town. And his story goes back a long way: to the time when Moazzamabad was named, after Aurangzeb s son; when Rafiq was seduced by the wealth and refinements of Shabbir Manzil and married Shaista; when the Hanuman temple grew ten storeys high and the head priest was elected mayor; when Shaista died, a mosque was brought down in Ayodhya and Rafiq became a mullah. As Jamaal grows up, watching both his father and his neighbourhood change and curfew reach Moazzamabad, he is changed himself. He becomes Jimmy, one among the countless marginalized trying to find a place in the world, dimly aware that the choices that shape their lives are being made in distant places, where they have no influence. Shortlisted for the Man Asian Prize 2009, this spare, compelling novel, as intimate as it is political, confirms Omair Ahmad s reputation as one of the most distinctive and exciting new voices in Indian fiction.

Jimmy The Terrorist

OMAIR AHMAD

Penguin??Books

Delhi has been plundered once again, this time by the forces of ahmad shah abdali. Forced to evacuate as his house is destroyed, the storyteller begins his journey away from the city when he encounters a haveli and is invited by its enigmatic begum to narrate tales. In a mutual exchange of stories, the plot encapsulates various manifestations of love, friendship, loyalty, trust, hatred and jealousy. Tales of unconditional love between two brothers taka (human) and wara (wolf) to loyalty between two friends (aresh and barab), a bond that transcends death. The storyteller and the begum are questioning each other's stance on love and embracing a deepening but unspoken desire for each other. Set in the 1700s, each story gives a new dimension to love, its manifestation complete as human bonds go through waves of loyalty, trust, hatred, desire, betrayal and jealousy.

The Storyteller's Tale

Speaking Tiger Books

Tall Tales by a Small Dog

Speaking Tiger

The Kingdom at the Centre of the World: Journeys into Bhutan

Literature & Fiction

ALEPH BOOK COMPANY PRIVATE LIMITED

In Moazzamabad, UP, too large to be a town and too backward to be a city, a young man stabs a police inspector and is beaten to death. The last words he speaks are, My name is Jimmy the Terrorist. Journalists descend upon the town like shrill birds , and a long-time resident decides to tell a story that none of them will know. Jimmy was once Jamaal, son of Rafiq Ansari of Rasoolpur Mohalla, a Muslim neighbourhood in a Hindu town. And his story goes back a long way: to the time when Moazzamabad was named, after Aurangzeb s son; when Rafiq was seduced by the wealth and refinements of Shabbir Manzil and married Shaista; when the Hanuman temple grew ten storeys high and the head priest was elected mayor; when Shaista died, a mosque was brought down in Ayodhya and Rafiq became a mullah. As Jamaal grows up, watching both his father and his neighbourhood change and curfew reach Moazzamabad, he is changed himself. He becomes Jimmy, one among the countless marginalized trying to find a place in the world, dimly aware that the choices that shape their lives are being made in distant places, where they have no influence. Spare, compelling, and as intimate as it is political, Jimmy the Terrorist reaffirms Omair Ahmad s reputation as one of the most distinctive voices in Indian fiction.

Jimmy the Terrorist

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Books by OMAIR AHMAD