Gulp this Pulp!

"Beware!" Dolly roared like a wounded tigress as she pointed her revolver at him. "Stop there, you devil! If you move even a step forward I will shoot you without any second thoughts." Lokesh fell silent. He did not expect such courage from a tender beauty.
                                                              - Shatranj (Chess), Shagun Sharma

Such is the heady stuff that Hindi pulp fiction is made of. Dishing out a tantalising, cheap cocktail of suspense, crime and sex to readers seeking respite from the tedium of everyday life, this genre of thrillers once ruled the roost in the Hindi heartland.

Made of recycled paper, the kind used for the cheap rough registers in which school students often do their homework, many of these 300-odd-page paperbacks are published from Meerut in western UP also known for its significant role in the 1857 War of Independence against the British.

At any book stand on railway platforms or makeshift stalls on the peripheries of bus terminals, across big, small and mofussil towns, these books can be found neatly stacked in the first row. With loud, melodramatic, screaming covers like box-office Bollywood posters, you just can't miss them. Several generations have grown up reading these pocket books, especially in the Hindi heartland. In train journeys, often, the book companions' are characters like Commander Karan Saxena, Indrajeet or Keshav Pandit - also turned into a crusading TV soap.

Full report here Hardnews