Seven Sixes Are Forty-Three

Kushank Purandare is a young writer living off the goodwill of a host of friends, relatives, and lovers while he waits to gain recognition for his work. He is witness to their struggle as modern Indians to hold on to a semblance of truth and sanity in the face of alienation, squalor, violence, and loss of hope. Nagarkar's explosive style and irreverent approach caused an equally explosive reaction when Seven Sixes was first published in 1974. Critics have struggled to reconcile its apparent nihilism with its underlying sense of optimism.