Mansuri, Macabre

In Barrackpore, near Calcutta, three men with good reason to escape their pasts come together and decide to disappear into the convenient world of godmen. The supposedly holy city of Allahabad, where such artful charlatans converge to prey upon the insecurities of the religious and not so religious, is their next natural choice of destination. But their journey doesn't stop there. After a whirlwind tour of the country dispensing their peculiar wisdom to the richest in the land, and opening a grand moneylaundering ashram, it is Mansuri that eventually attracts their louche attention. Are any of these supposed sadhus?or all?behind the murder of the secretive, housebound sisters? In this grisly tale of deception, cruelty, sexual deviance and greed, popular storyteller Sudhir Thapliyal once more displays his skill at dramatic presentation. About The Author: Sudhir Thapliyal was born and schooled in Mussoorie to where he has returned. A graduate of the University of Allahabad, he did his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta. He was a senior journalist with The Statesman and today is a freelance journalist, writer and documentary filmmaker. He was nominated for the Rhodes Scholarship in 1967 and is a 1972 Fellow of the World Press Institute, St Paul, Minn. (USA). Many of his short stories and features have been published in leading magazines and newspapers. He has written the screenplay of a telefilm based on Ruskin Bond's novel Room on the Roof. He is currently working on a screenplay for a Bollywood producer. His published books include Hello! Mister Tee (Srishti Publications), renamed The Loves and Life of Mike Tarrance (Genesis Publishing, a division of A.H. Wheeler), War at Lambidhar (Genesis Publishing) and Crossing the Road (Roli Books). 'The ease with which he weaves word webs, the manner in which he sweeps past to present can put any raconteur to rest. No wonder Sudhir Thapliyal ca