"Arzee is a welcome change in a literature that has, for the most part, been susceptible to reflecting the narrow, English-speaking world of its writers and many of its readers," says Samhita Arni in The Caravan.

Standing three and a half feet above the ground, Arzee has a complicated life. If he doesn’t look up when he talks to people, he ends up staring at their crotches. He is ridiculed, assaulted, and made to feel "small" in a rough and unforgiving society.

To be able to "rise" in the world, he wants a better job, more money, a wife, and make his mother happy. So when the old projectionist at Noor cinema retires, Arzee is happy. He assures himself that he will be made the head now. In his mind all the problems have been solved. But the cinema owners decide to shut the theatre and his dreams of a bright future are shattered. And above all this, there are old debts to be paid and Monique, his girlfriend, has left him without telling him.

Arzee faces more self-humiliation in days to come and begins to wonder who he is and what his life is all about. A twist of plot towards the end leads him ‘to fight for his new love, free himself from his mother’s shadow, and push on towards self-reliance" in the world of the fives and the sixes.

Chandrahas Choudhury’s debut novel has been selected by World Literature Today as one of 60 essential works of modern Indian literature in English.

Published in 2009.