CONFESSIONS OF AN EROTICA SELLER

PannaLal, popularly known as Panu is a hawker selling cheap eroticas in the guise of newspapers. The story happens to start on the night he had planned to kill his whole family. This night also marks the completion of one year of Bengal’s People Party (BPP) in power .PannaLal lives in a slum near Chitpur (although the exact address is not known) with his bed-ridden mother and a disabled son. His sole income comes from selling cheap erotica books or Battala literature (as it is called in Bengal) which he picks up from Mallick Da’s printing press .His wife had died two years ago , being killed in police firing on the protestors in Harigram .There, BPP’s leaders were protesting against land acquisition.

Panu’s life rotates around selling those pale yellowish copies, and reading them while he has no customers at his portable shop under the banyan tree. He meets strange people everyday who comes to buy from him....college goers, kids, taxi drivers and even women .He is harassed by local policemen as selling such books are illegal. He is sex starved.

His fantasy world has different women in it –

Shiuli, his neighbour Mukul Dutta’s wife

The receptionist at Tara enterprises just opposite to his shop

Mangala, the wife of the Bihari Doodhwala living in his slum

The local councillor Bula Sen.