35 and Sexless in Ahmedabad

Anant, a thirty-five-year-old small-time photographer in Ahmedabad, has a recurring nightmare. In it, a three-legged bitch is chained to his ankle, slowing his step and dragging angrily behind him. Try as he might, he is neither able to free himself of the mongrel in the dream nor the dream itself. What does the dog signify? Raashee, his one-time lover who now exists only in online chat windows? Or Diane Arbus, the legendary 1960s’ photographer whose groundbreaking ideas have no takers in Ahmedabad? Or his father, with whom he has a strained relationship? When psychologists and Google fail him, Anant embarks on a Kafkaesque journey through the city to find the answers that elude him. 35 and Sexless in Ahmedabad is a darkly comic story about a lonely man’s quest for real connections in times of virtual connectivity — a misfit artist’s alienation in a conservative city, here Ahmedabad but could be any other. But the most hopeless of situations often have simple solutions. As Anant discovers, his three-legged dog is actually a profound problem with a surprisingly primal answer.