Man of a Thousand Chances
By Tulsi Badrinath
Published in Paperback (19 January 2012)
Publisher: Hachette India; Import edition
Language English, 320 pages
ISBN-10: 9350092808
Guide Price: £5.99
Click here to buy this book today!

'Man of a Thousand Chances' by Tulsi Badrinath is a very readable, fast-paced story about an ordinary middle-class man who takes an extreme step just to pay for his daughter's wedding. It plays the very simple, recognizable world of Harihar Arora, with joint family politics and financial worries, against the beautiful, sophisticated world of classical Indian art and philosophy, and the high-stakes world of coin collection.

Harihar Arora: second-generation north Indian in Madras, museum curator, indifferent husband, indulgent father – and thief. Desperate to meet his beloved daughter’s wedding expenses, the otherwise honest Harihar steals a rare gold coin minted by Mughal Emperor Jahangir and pawns it, with every intention of returning it after the wedding. But when he finds himself in a position to redeem it, he learns that it has been melted by the pawnbroker.

What follows next forces Harihar to readdress his place in the world, and in his own marriage. Beneath the deceptively simple surface of a story about an ordinary man in a rather extraordinary fix, are questions about the workings of karma, causality and the power of art, that offer profound matter for debate.

About the Author

About the author Tulsi Badrinath has a Bachelor's degree in English Literature from Stella Maris College, Madras and a Master's in Business Administration from Ohio University, Athens. After working four long, dreary years in a multinational bank, Tulsi quit her job to devote herself to dance and writing. Her poems, articles, reviews and short story have appeared in various newspapers and publications. She lives in Madras. From the age of eight, Tulsi learnt the classical dance-form Bharatanatyam from her gurus, the Dhananjayans, and performed widely, at events such as the Festival ofIndia, USSR, 1987, as part of their troupe. She has given many solo performances in India, and abroad. Meeting Lives, which was on the 2007 Man Asian Literary Prize longlist as The Living God, is her first novel. Her second novel, Melting Love, was on the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize longlist as well.