Manjunath Kumar

Manjunath “Manju” Kumar is the main character of the novel. He is the son of Mohan Kumar and the younger brother of Radha Kumar by about one year. Like his brother, Manju spends most of his free time practicing cricket, in accordance with the will of his father, in the hopes that he may be selected as a professional cricket player and raise his family out of poverty. However, while Manjunath is willing to obey his father’s wishes, he does not truly desire to play cricket. He secretly wishes to attend college, study forensic science, and become a crime scene investigator like in his favorite television show, “CSI.”

Manju attends Ruia College, but he ultimately drops out to play cricket professionally. He has a middling career and is fired from professional cricket at the age f 27, when he then becomes a professional talent scout. Throughout the...