I picked up this book with a lot of enthusiasm; to a large extent I had hoped for Gulzar to be as entertaining in translation as Sadat Hasan Manto. However, but for the very first story and maybe a couple of silver linings, 'Half a Rupee Stories' is boring, pointless and doesn't even have the lyrical or poetic magic you would expect a Gulzar book to contain. It took me three months to trudge through this not very thick book, and it was a terrible let down.
Avoid.
