North Star
by R. Chandramouli
“North Star,” the novel, was penned over three years, during weekends, and in airplanes, trains and bus terminals. The story is set in Madras of the 60s, 70s and 80s, with some scenes played out in Kolkata and Colorado. Several threads run in tandem through the novel. The anti-Hindi agitation of the 60s in which two policemen were burnt to death by a mob; the journey of the protagonist, Arjun, who sets out thirty years later to unearth the mobster who set fire to his father; and the story of the heroine, whose name is not known, whose address is not known, but can be found only by retracing her past. The charm of the story is perhaps the frequent use of one location dear to many of us, Woodlands drive-in, wherein the plot takes an unexpected turn.