The Little God (Paperback - 2011)

Sambhu, a tribal boy, acts as his father’s stand-in in a dhaba-cum-brothel. This occurs after his family desert their ancient village in Kalahandi in order to escape from the deadly clutches of the worst drought. His old father takes a job as a dishwasher, borrows some money from his master for his daughter’s wedding, but fails to pay up. Once when he goes sick, his master drags Sambhu from his school and forces him to work as a slave.

His master violates Lila, a teenaged chic country girl who has been abducted and sold to him for flesh trade. Sambhu despises his master’s ways, and rescues the girl from the brothel.

Sambhu is nabbed by the police and suffers gruesome torture. He manages to get away from the place, visits his sister’s where he witnesses the brutal murder of his pregnant sister.

Years later, a chance meeting with Lila reveals to him that she is deceiving her bloke, and playing the inconstant wife. All his hopes and illusions are shattered.

Sambhu is not submissive—he fights single-handedly against the others. Immensely cheesed off with his job, he tries to throw off the yoke of slavery. He yearns to breathe freely—to work, play, and be happy. Can he?

Dr. L.N. Mishra is a Reader in English at S.G. College under Utkal University, Orissa. He was awarded Ph.D. by University of Allahabad for his doctoral dissertation on ‘Sri Aurobindo’s Dramatic Theory and Practice’, which has been considered as ‘an original contribution to Sri Aurobindo scholarship’. He has published five books and more than a dozen of articles and research papers in various leading literary journals. This is his second work in fiction.