The Man in the Mirror

Tabish Khair’s book is a taut navigation of faith and the shrinking space for dialogues in India today.

Written by: Paromita Chakrabarti

2 min readJun 30, 2018 12:59 AM IST

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The novel opens in a hotel room where a manuscript nestles next to a copy of the Bhagvad Gita and a Bible in a drawer.

Book: Night of Happiness

Author: Tabish Khair

Publisher: Picador India

Pages: 154

Price: Rs 450

It’s difficult to fit Tabish Khair’s seventh novel, Night of Happiness, into the genre of thrillers, literary or otherwise: the crime remains ambiguous, the investigation a discursive monologue broken only by snatches of wry humour, and the resolution an invitation to draw one’s own inference. Shorn of edge-of-the-seat suspense and marked by the absence of a customary body, why then should one read this slim volume?

One possible answer is that it is a ruminative tease of a novel whose scope expands beyond the individual to look at the communal life of Hindus and Muslims in the aftermath of the pogrom in Gujarat in 2002. The other more immediate reason would be that it delves into the nature of casual bigotry and what it means to be a minority in India today.

The novel opens in a hotel room where a manuscript nestles next to a copy of the Bhagvad Gita and a Bible in a drawer. Its writer, Anil Mehrotra, entrepreneur and owner of a thriving, unnamed business exhorts the reader to interpret his dilemma that began one stormy night when he went to drop his trusted lieutenant at work, Ahmed, home. The experience of that evening — the night of Shab-e-Baraat — becomes the crux of the novel and the turning point in the two men’s relationship.

At once an exploration of Mehrotra’s majoritarian privileges and self-effacing Ahmed’s contrasting past in small-town Bihar and in Gujarat, Khair neatly sidesteps the dangers of such binaries that, in less accomplished hands, could easily be reduced to reductive apologia. This is less of a thriller and more of an ambitious exploration of faith and the shrinking space for dialogues in modern India.

Paromita Chakrabarti

Paromita Chakrabarti is Senior Associate Editor at the The Indian Express. She is a key member of the National Editorial and Opinion desk and writes on books and literature, gender discourse, workplace policies and contemporary socio-cultural trends. Professional Profile With a career spanning over 20 years, her work is characterized by a "deep culture" approach—examining how literature, gender, and social policy intersect with contemporary life. Specialization: Books and publishing, gender discourse (specifically workplace dynamics), and modern socio-cultural trends. Editorial Role: She curates the literary coverage for the paper, overseeing reviews, author profiles, and long-form features on global literary awards. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent writing highlights a blend of literary expertise and sharp social commentary: 1. Literary Coverage & Nobel/Booker Awards "2025 Nobel Prize in Literature | Hungarian master of apocalypse" (Oct 10, 2025): An in-depth analysis of László Krasznahorkai’s win, exploring his themes of despair and grace. "Everything you need to know about the Booker Prize 2025" (Nov 10, 2025): A comprehensive guide to the history and top contenders of the year. "Katie Kitamura's Audition turns life into a stage" (Nov 8, 2025): A review of the novel’s exploration of self-recognition and performance. 2. Gender & Workplace Policy "Karnataka’s menstrual leave policy: The problem isn’t periods. It’s that workplaces are built for men" (Oct 13, 2025): A viral opinion piece arguing that modern workplace patterns are calibrated to male biology, making women's rights feel like "concessions." "Best of Both Sides: For women’s cricket, it’s 1978, not 1983" (Nov 7, 2025): A piece on how the yardstick of men's cricket cannot accurately measure the revolution in the women's game. 3. Social Trends & Childhood Crisis "The kids are not alright: An unprecedented crisis is brewing in schools and homes" (Nov 23, 2025): Writing as the Opinions Editor, she analyzed how rising competition and digital overload are overwhelming children. 4. Author Interviews & Profiles "Fame is another kind of loneliness: Kiran Desai on her Booker-shortlisted novel" (Sept 23, 2025): An interview regarding The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. "Once you’ve had a rocky and unsafe childhood, you can’t trust safety: Arundhati Roy" (Aug 30, 2025): A profile on Roy’s recent reflections on personal and political violence. Signature Beats Gender Lens: She frequently critiques the "borrowed terms" on which women navigate pregnancy, menstruation, and caregiving in the corporate world. Book Reviews: Her reviews often draw parallels between literature and other media, such as comparing Richard Osman’s The Impossible Fortune to the series Only Murders in the Building (Oct 25, 2025). ... Read More

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