Rina Ferreira, middle-aged and single, lecturer in English literature, tentative poet, owner of two parrots and a flat in Queens Diamonds Building. Daily she comes across some dangerlok: autorickshawallahs who clog her lane; the neighbor who objects to the kept woman in the flat below hers; students who wonder if she has any friends; people who ask if shes Indian. Fort Rina Ferreira, middle-aged and single, lecturer in English literature, tentative poet, owner of two parrots and a flat in Queens Diamonds Building. Daily she comes across some dangerlok: autorickshawallahs who clog her lane; the neighbor who objects to the kept woman in the flat below hers; students who wonder if she has any friends; people who ask if shes Indian. Fortified with cigarettes and junglee tea, Rina observes them all, and dashes off letters brimming with the details of her Bombay life to an old flame who calls up to talk about his girlfriends when sober and to profess his love for her when drunk. - Back cover