The Many Lives of Syeda X: The Story of an Unknown Indian opens Goodreads in a new tab

The story of an unknown Indian woman, from the early 1990s to the present. Syeda X leaves Banaras for Delhi with her young family after the riots that followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid. A poor migrant, she juggles over fifty kinds of work, from trimming loose threads off jeans to cooking namkeen and shelling almonds. Researched for close to a decade, the book also brings in a rickshaw driver, a doctor arrested for pre-natal sex determination and corrupt policemen, and comes full circle when the Delhi riots of 2020 upend her life.