The book is a biographical account of the life of an intellectual, born in the family of an average lower middle class clerk, ?Munshi? in colloquial language, at the court of the state of Rampur in post independence India and of his struggles to make a mark on the literary landscape of the time. Written in Hindustani, a sensitive blend of Hindi and Urdu languages, the story presents a unique narrative involving the cities and places as characters and reflects on cultural, social and political moorings of the main character that, in his early youth used to write poetry under the pen name of ?Hasarat?. Hasarat symbolises and literally means unfulfilled wish, his wish, of some day returning to the ancient city of Prayag, the confluence of holy rivers Ganga, yamuna and now vanished Saraswati, a wish that he takes with him to his funeral pyre in the end.