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Maithreyi Karnoor’s Gooday Nagar finds extraordinary stories in ordinary Indian lives
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First published on: Jun 27, 2026 at 12:17 PM IST Maithreyi Karnoor’s Gooday Nagar is a collection of 10 short stories set around people who are either from or come to the eponymous fictional Indian town. The book maps the emotional landscape of its inhabitants from the late ‘90s through the pandemic years — their aspirations, absurdities and conflicts. Gooday Nagar is reminiscent of RK Laxman’s Malgudi. Like Laxman’s characters, those in Gooday Nagar are also ambitious, jealous and morally questionable; essentially human.The exact location of Gooday Nagar is never specified. In fact in ‘Return of the Salesman’, the town does not even exist. Through the next nine stories, the town grows but its character alternates between being a provincial town to a metropolis. Eventually, one realises that Gooday Nagar is more of a concept than an actual physical location. It is a idea of a place where the small and the significant coexist, where a vacuum cleaner salesman from the big city can become a quasi-mythic figure, and where a woman jilted by her husband can find solidarity in neighbourhood gossip. Karnoor understands that it is within the ordinary life that real drama thrives — in the daily rituals, the staple food, the slow-burning disappointments. The residents of Gooday Nagar are largely vegetarians: kheer, dhokla, jowar rotis, and soan papdi appear as often as character names. A mention of meat indicates the story has moved out of the neighbourhood. The divide between those who left for the big city and those who stayed back is also something the author puts to good use, as in ‘Ringa Ringa Roses’. A circular tale of love and betrayal, the story has a reclusive artist, who abandons his college sweetheart for a younger mentee, at the centre. But it is in the unexpected ways Karnoor ties several other characters to build the narrative that leaves an impact. You don’t see the twist coming. ‘Mapmaker, Mapmaker, Make Me a Map’ is equally memorable. A 12-year old girl with vitiligo is convinced her skin is turning her into a foreigner. Her armour in the discriminatory world is academic excellence, which unfortunately hits a roadblock during the COVID-19 lockdown. The story handles the pandemic with the kind of restraint and precision that a good pandemic fiction demands. In ‘Ladies of Lore’, Karnoor, builds the story around the fragile relationship between a mother and her daughters. As it talks about the generational trauma left behind by the former, it shows how the siblings try to break the cycles for themselves. What might catch a reader off-guard is the ambiguity of the physical area that the town is placed in. Don’t try to place the pieces geographically. Instead, find meaning in the peripheral, and recognise that the good people of any Indian city, dreaming of better days, navigating pandemic, heartbreaks and the temptations of consumerism, are also the conscience of the nation.
New DelhiJun 4, 2026 03:53 AM IST A police personnel from the Hauz Khas police station, deputed at the spot, said that while the police have not ordered the shutting down of the hotels, all such properties will be checked for necessary permits. Less than 12 hours after the devastating blaze at the Flourish Stay bed and breakfast (B&B) at Hauz Rani in Malviya Nagar, many hotels and guest houses in the area closed their shutters, removed all signage and asked their guests to leave. In a narrow lane of Hauz Rani, multiple properties run guest houses, homestays and B&Bs right across the street from Max Hospital Saket, where medical tourists — patients and their attendants — come to stay, owing to the proximity to the hospital.Several of these properties are crammed into dingy alleyways, the buildings less than 10 feet wide, with single entry and exit points. Around 8 pm, barely a few hundred metres away from the B&B where the blaze killed 12 foreign nationals and 9 Indians, 46-year old interpreter from Democratic Republic of Congo, Ben alias Benedict, was seen lugging his suitcase out of Flourish Inn Guest House. With the reception on the first floor shuttered off, he was among the last to leave the guest house. “Around 4 pm, the hotel manager told us ‘you have to leave today or there will be trouble’. I am now headed to East of Kailash,” he said. “I had a patient (for whom he acted as a translator), Sita Beatrice, at the B&B that caught fire. She died in the fire. Another of my patients was also there. He was able to escape, and he had a flight back to Congo today via Mumbai. I think he missed the Mumbai flight,” he claimed. “The owner (of Flourish Inn Guest House) is not around,” Ben added.Story continues below this ad A police personnel from the Hauz Khas police station, deputed at the spot, said that while the police have not ordered the shutting down of the hotels, all such properties will be checked for necessary permits. Until this morning, Urban Suite Oasis Rooms had a ‘Rooms Available” board hanging on the door. By evening, the hotel had emptied out its guests, removed all signage, and locked its doors. Dilshad, a local resident, said, “They were open but then the police started making rounds… The staff is still inside… You won’t get any room today at Hauz Rani, you have to look elsewhere. They all have thrown out their guests.” Around 8.30 pm, Alauddin Ali (54), a driver, was waiting outside Micasa Homes – different from Micasa Inn located next to the B&B that caught fire – waiting for an Iraqi couple he had dropped off earlier in the day. “They have been told to leave the hotel. They are now going to a guest house at Chhattarpur,” he said.Story continues below this ad Micasa Homes, barely 200 m from the site of the blaze, had locked its door from inside and turned off the lights at the reception. Local residents claimed that Micasa Homes and Micasa Inn were both run by the same owner. A few metres away, another B&B, Star Light Suites, had two of its staffers stationed outside. Pat came the reply for an inquiry for a room for a night – “There is no room, everyone is leaving… we are closing.” Meanwhile, at Max Hospital, Ankit Agarwal (34) from Gorakhpur is at his wits end. His brother is being treated at Max Hospital Saket for a hip issue. “Hotels near the hospital are not taking bookings anymore, so we don’t know what to do,” he said. © The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
New DelhiJun 3, 2026 03:56 PM IST Twenty-one people died after a fire broke out at a Malviya Nagar hotel. (AP)The bed and breakfast in South Delhi’s Malviya Nagar, where a blaze on Wednesday killed 21, was only allowed to run 6 rooms, but was running 25, said senior officials in the Delhi Police. A report has been sought by the government on who gave permission for the premises. When The Indian Express visited the spot, it found that two BnBs — Flourish Stays and Micasa Inn — ran from one building, separated by a wall. Police sources said the fire started from the kitchen of Flourish BnB, located in the basement, which then spread to Micasa. According to a senior government official, the Tourism department gives permission to set up a BnB. “An order has been issued to the Tourism Department seeking a report on who gave permission for the Malviya Nagar BnB. The building, comprising a basement, ground plus four floors, was allowed only six rooms…,” said the official. The Delhi Police has registered an FIR under the section of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against unknown persons. Sources said the building did not have a fire No-Objection Certificate as well. Following the blaze, Delhi Home Minister Ashish Sood has directed that all BnBs violating building plans and set guidelines be sealed. The minister has directed that a high-level committee be formed, under the chairmanship of the District Magistrate South, comprising officials from fire, MCD, power, health and tourism departments, to inspect all BnBs in Malviya Nagar and across the national capital. “He sought a detailed report on the number of BnBs, how many of them have been found violating rules, and how many of them have been sealed by today evening,” said a senior official.
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