[1] Rahul Bhattacharya was born in Bombay (Mumbai) in India, and lived briefly as a baby in Calcutta.
[1] His father was Bengali, though born and raised in the small towns of Uttar Pradesh, in the north, and interior Maharashtra, in the centre.
[2] It was the first major sporting encounter between India and Pakistan in 15 years, a period when the two countries had fought a war.
[5] Ondaatje Prize judge Nick Laird said he had "seldom read a book with so much energy", while fellow judge Michèle Roberts called it "one of the most exhilarating novels I have read for years" and praised the author's invention of "a beautiful and original language, mixing street poetry and sharply sensual poetry".
[5] Kamila Shamsie, also on the judging panel, said "the combination of Bhattacharya's prose style, his great curiosity and generous-though-not-uncritical eye, the light touch with which he conveys knowledge, and the sheer pleasure of his company".