Sneak Peek: Islands

Chronic loneliness is as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

Geetha Rajiv read from the miserable-looking pamphlet glued to the inoperable, age-old electricity post near her bus stop. The flyer clung to its dear life, three-fourths of it hanging in the air like the drooping ears of a starving dog. Geetha fixed the advert, brooding, "guess what's deadlier?" as she took another puff from the cheap, ten-rupee cigarette.