The Town Slowly Empties: On Life and Culture During Lockdown

"There is nowhere to go and nothing much to do. The body is forced into confinement, but the mind is free to travel." The Town Slowly Empties traces a vivid arc across individual and collective experience during the Covid-19 pandemic. Confined to the small rooms and terrace of his Delhi apartment, Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee unravels the intimate paradoxes of our lives, and offers us a window to the new world. His stories about local fish sellers, the autowallah he sings for, conversations with friends, lovers forced apart sparkle amidst a world turned upside down. The disquieting exodus of migrant labourers, a shamed health worker, a mother bringing her son home, an iconic protest for equality depict a world in need of respite, care and hope. Manash becomes our Everyman, who mends broken ties with nature, deplores the clockwork of capitalism, and remembers things past. The Town Empties Slowly is a mind-travel under the shadow of a global pandemic. It offers a lived perspective on an extraordinary time through art, cinema, literature and politics. This book is a compelling account of the human condition that soars high above the empty streets.