This weekend’s Mint Lounge has a short excerpt from the book. The excerpt provides a glimpse into the life and times of Anant Singh, a highly eccentric criminal-turned-politician in Bihar.

Anant Singh is an unlikely poster child for electoral success in a flourishing democracy. He is fond of wearing sunglasses, a cigarette perched on his lips, his body adorned in all white, occasionally gussied up with a leather jacket. If he were not in politics, Singh could have had an alternate career as a cinematic villain—his practised bad boy look was straight out of central casting.

You can read the entire excerpt here.