Deepa Anappara

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara is set in the slums that have risen along the Purple Line of an unnamed Indian city’s metro. When one of his classmates goes missing, nine year old Jai and his two friends Pari and Faiz decide investigate the disappearance. Jai is inspired by his favorite reality cop television program. As more children start to disappear, it seems as if this hapless trio are the only ones who are looking into the disappearance of these children.

The story is an excellent mixture of a coming-of-age with a mystery and an intense social commentary on life lived in these crowded slums. We learn of their day-to-day life, their food, clothing, education, religions and culture. The children know of no different life so they are for the most part cheerful and happy. Of course the fact that someone or something is taking children is constantly in the background and causing the rules to tighten, parents to become more demanding and freedoms to be curtailed. The tension builds as more children disappear and finally, someone very close to Jai is taken.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is a compelling read that lays bare the complex social and political realities of modern day India and immerses us in Jai’s world both through his imagination and his very sharp observations. This difficult story filtered through a child’s eyes brings a sense of reality to the fact that in India up to 180 children go missing every day. These unfound and unlooked for children are from slums very much like the one that Jai lives in.… (mere)