A Guy Growing Old in a Country Growing Young

In a country where 50 per cent of the population is younger than twenty-five, what does it mean to be old? Ask Dan Mullagathanny. Not that Dan is old. He is only forty-nine. Anywhere else, he would be in his prime: ripe for the big promotion, ready for the big responsibility. If he was already married, he could have started an affair. If he was having an affair, he could have ended it and gone back to his wife to reflect on his foolishness. But in India, with youngsters all around, he is ageing faster. There are no jobs for him. And why would there be when his employers can hire two twenty-four-year-olds – smarter, more ambitious, more ‘with it’ – for the age of a forty-nine-year-old? In trying to woo girls, he becomes a storehouse of their secrets, and the most he can hope for is a polite platonic friendship. He cannot decide whether to be on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, and he cannot understand why he should say ‘given the fact that’ when he can more easily say ‘since’. India is no country for old men. Will Dan make himself count or lose his voice here? A funny-sad story about being a misfit in a rapidly changing world, A Guy Growing Old in a Country Growing Young is compelling satire that asks important questions with an unusually light touch.