Ghachar Ghochar

What happens when, after a life in misery, opulence breaks in? Accustomed to living in a dark hut infested with ants, the narrator, his wife, his parents, and his uncle, Chikkappa, move into a two-story house in an upper-middle-class neighborhood. The success of the company run by the uncle saves them from poverty, but has ended the old days when the whole family paraded together as one body through the tightrope of their circumstances. The cracks begin to lurk the family ties and tension reigns in the house. When one day someone knocks on the door ready to blow up that fragile balance, violence will erupt. "Ghachar ghochar" is an expression that denotes something hopelessly entangled, an unsolvable complication. Vivek Shanbhag invented these words to give the title of an unforgettable modern parable about capitalism, a tale, with classical overtones, about wealth and moral ruin.