The present novel aims at highlighting the struggle of a strong-willed rural girl Neema against her ill-matched marriage, familial restrictions, suffocating customs, antiquated traditions and age-old taboos. Having been denied her marriage with her classmate, Neema is forced to marry an impotent widower with whom her marriage remains unconsummated for many years while she moves around frantically in quest of happiness like a headless chicken.

Written in a skilful and spell-binding narrative, the novel is so full of ever-present suspense that the reader is anxious to know what happens next. By using subtle irony, rollicking humour and stinging satire, Srivastava provides a picture of Indian rural life in a simple yet metaphorical language which makes the novel eminently readable.

Dr Ramesh K. Srivastava, who got his Ph.D. degree from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (U.S.A.) in 1972, is well known for his creative and critical writings in English. He was awarded a prestigious Fulbright (U.S. Govt.) Fellowship in 1969, the University of Utah Graduate Research Fellowships in 1970-72, and subsequently Senior Fulbright (U.S. Govt.) Fellowship in 1984-85 to work on Henry David Thoreau at Boston (U.S.A.). He was also awarded the University Grants Commission Emeritus Fellowship in 2003-05 to work on Indian Writers in English at Bundelkhand University, Jhansi (U.P.).

Some of his publications are: Hemingway and his For Whom the Bell Tolls; Perspectives on Bhabani Bhattacharya; Perspectives on Anita Desai; Love and Animality: Stories; Cooperative Colony: Stories; Masks and Men: Stories; Neema (A novel); Six Indian Novelists in English; Games They Play and Other Stories; Colonial Consciousness in Black American, African and Indian Fiction in English; Critical Studies in English and American Literature; Under the Lamp: Stories; The Novels of Kamala Markandaya: A Critical Study; Symbolism in Indian Fiction in English; Wit and Humour in Indian English Literature; Coils of the Serpent (A Novel) and Read, Write and Teach: Essays on Learning to Live Together; Christmas Gift and Other Stories, My Father’s Bad Boy: An Autobiography and Road Not Taken and Other Stories. He also edited Thoreau’s Walden for Oxford University Press.

Formerly Professor and Head, Department of English and Dean, Faculty of Languages at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (Punjab), Dr Srivastava also remained the Director, Institute of Languages, and U.G.C. Emeritus Professor at Bundelkhand University, Jhansi. He is currently Professor of English at S. R. Group of Institutions, Ambabai, JHANSI (U.P.)