From a vantage perch in his hillside home in the idyllic ruralia of Himachal Pradesh, retired bureaucrat and writer Avay Shukla casts an unindulgent eye at the rapidly deteriorating socio-political climate of contemporary India. More seriously-as he says, far too many people, in the false security of their cocoons, are choosing to ignore what is happening around them or simply keeping quiet. But the future of the nation is in the hands of each and every citizen.

In these pieces, Shukla’s engaging voice-ranging from wry to vexed to humorous-attempts to shake up the indifference and keep public opinion and conscience alive: during a period crucial to India’s history and destiny.

Avay Shukla is a retired civil servant, environmentalist and writer. He writes extensively on current affairs, the environment and conservation, the bureaucracy and governance, legal matters, social issues, societal peccadilloes and anything else he can lampoon. Shukla is settled in a small village, Puranikoti, above Shimla in Himachal Pradesh and intends staying there most of the time until the cows come home.