The Red Badge

Kerala, 1974. Rajesh, the fourth-standard topper in a Malayalam-medium school in Tiruvalla, founded by his upper-caste Kshatriya ancestors, is excited to move to the big English-medium school there. But things go awry. Grappling with the challenges of English-medium studies, he is stuck in the middle of the rank-list. Desperation grows when the socially inferior Veeramani - the son of Rajesh's father's boss - gets the red badge for coming first. Rajesh goes into a tailspin, and even seeks divine intervention.

Meanwhile, a regime deifying the idea of an Undivided Bharata gains power in the country, and a horrifying reign of persecution follows - one that might make way for Rajesh to finally own the coveted red badge.

Rajesh R. Varma's acclaimed first novel, Chuvanna Badge, now brilliantly translated as The Red Badge by the award-winning J. Devika, is a searing account of the paranoia of caste privilege and the demons it births. Steeped in humour, nostalgia and violence, it is a chilling record of a memory that might actually belong to the future.