In Anita Desai’s novel In Custody, the timid Hindi teacher Deven Sharma gets the opportunity of a lifetime when his brash childhood friend Murad hires him to interview his idol, the famous, elderly, reclusive Urdu poet Nur Shahjahanabadi. The novel opens with Murad paying Deven a surprise visit in Mirpore, the dusty, unremarkable town near Delhi where he lives and teaches. Over lunch, they discuss the decline of Urdu, which was once the language of India’s royalty and literary elite, but has now been replaced by Hindi, the “language of peasants.” They bonded over Urdu as young men and believe deeply in the cause of saving it—Murad’s magazine Awaaz is dedicated to Urdu literature, and even though Deven teaches Hindi for practical reasons, his research focuses on the great Urdu poet Nur. Deven resents that Murad still hasn’t paid him for his last few articles in Awaaz, but when Murad asks him to interview Nur for the next issue, he eagerly agrees.
Another day, Deven takes the bus to meet Murad in Delhi. Murad claims to be in a rush to see Nur, but he takes Deven to an electrician’s shop instead, and then back to his office—which is really a tiny desk in the corner of a print shop. Murad sends his office boy to lead Deven into the chaotic, musty bowels of Old Delhi’s Chandni Chowk market. They go to Nur’s crumbling house, and Deven finds the bearded Nur lying on a couch upstairs, dressed in white, surrounded by tattered books. Deven explains that he’s writing an article about Urdu poetry, but Nur declares that Urdu is already dead and Deven doesn’t deserve its brilliance. Nur starts reciting one of his poems, and to his surprise, Deven continues the recitation. The poem was one of Deven’s father’s favorites.
Suddenly, a swarm of visitors shows up and start asking Nur for money, telling dirty jokes, and reciting their own second-rate poetry. A servant (Ali) whisks Nur away for a massage, bath, and change of clothes, and then he returns to entertain his guests. Deven is astonished to watch Nur drink glasses of rum and clumsily shove biryani and kebabs into his mouth while the crowd devolves into mindless, unoriginal chatter about Urdu, then starts throwing plates and glasses on the ground. When Nur drunkenly stumbles downstairs to wake up his son and make him sing, Deven follows him. He finds Nur lying face-down on a mattress while his wife Imtiaz stands over him, screaming that he wastes his time drinking instead of taking care of his family and writing poetry. Nur has vomited all over the floor; Imtiaz throws papers at Deven and demands that he clean it up. He agrees, then runs out to the street with the vomit-soaked paper, which he realizes has Nur’s poetry on it.
Deven takes the morning bus back to Mirpore, where he decides to go straight to work. When he finally makes it home, his wife Sarla refuses to talk to him. She hates his feebleness and low salary, and he hates her negativity and simplemindedness; she copes with her resentment by ignoring him, and he by criticizing her cooking and cleaning. Deven spends the afternoon reading his young son Manu a book of animal fables and taking him on a walk through the neighborhood, down to a nearby canal. Deven decides that maybe his simple, boring life in Mirpore isn’t so bad.
Then, Deven gets a postcard from Nur thanking him for “your decision to work as my secretary.” Deven returns to Delhi to confront Murad, who is obviously responsible. Murad calls Deven ungrateful, disrespectful, and weak-willed—and tells him to go see Nur. Against his better judgment, Deven returns to Nur’s house, where he joins a huge crowd assembling to watch a poetry recital. He is dismayed to see Imtiaz performing, not Nur. In the middle of the show, Nur stands up and walks out, and Deven follows him. Upstairs, Nur lays on his couch, starts drinking, and complains that Imtiaz is betraying him by writing her own poetry. He explains that Deven can help him write down some old, unpublished poems, but he is “too broken and crushed” to do it today. Suddenly, Imtiaz arrives with her skirt full of rupee bills and mocks Nur for giving up on poetry. An elderly woman—Nur’s first wife, Safiya—follows Imtiaz inside and attacks her. Deven runs out and returns to Murad’s office, where Murad proposes that he tape record Nur’s new poems instead of trying to write them all down.
Back in Mirpore, Deven meets his college’s sole Urdu professor, Abid Siddiqui, at the reception after the annual board meeting. Deven proudly explains that he is interviewing Nur—and might even collect Nur’s unpublished poems or write his biography. But Deven admits that he needs recording equipment, so Siddiqui slyly convinces the college registrar, Mr. Rai, to give him funding. In Delhi, Murad marches Deven into an electronics shop, where the owner, Mr. Jain, gives him a secondhand Japanese recorder and offers his nephew, Chiku, as “a technical assistant” to run it. Deven realizes that Jain and Murad have made a “shady deal,” but he agrees anyway.
The next time Deven visits Nur, there is another massive crowd in the courtyard because Imtiaz is deathly ill. Deven explains his plan to record Nur’s poetry, but Nur says it won’t work because Imtiaz will overhear them. In her room, Imtiaz warns Nur against reciting poetry and declares that “jackals from universities” are trying to make a living off his work. For a third time, Deven panics and flees Nur’s house unannounced. But on his way out, he meets Safiya, who claims that Imtiaz is faking her illness and explains that Deven must rent another space if he really wants to get his interview with Nur. She offers to help—for a price. But Deven doesn’t have any money.
Back in Mirpore, Sarla criticizes Deven for his laziness and spending so much time in Delhi (as she thinks he’s having an affair). Deven visits Siddiqui, who lives in a massive but decrepit estate, and they spend an evening drinking, discussing Urdu literature, and playing cards with Siddiqui’s friends. Deven begs Siddiqui to help him rent a recording space, and Siddiqui mocks Deven’s cowardliness, but agrees to help and secures more funding from Mr. Rai. Deven arranges to spend the summer interviewing Nur.
Safiya rents Deven a room in a brothel down the street from Nur’s house. Deven and Chiku set up the recorder, and then Nur arrives—along with his posse of followers. They immediately start demanding food and drink. Deven panics and calls Murad, who reluctantly agrees to give him some cash. When the biryani and rum arrive, Nur finally starts reciting some poetry, but Chiku falls asleep and forgets to record it. Over the following weeks, Nur comes to the room every day, but he spends more time telling old stories and arguing with his followers than actually reciting his poetry. And whenever he does recite a poem, Chiku misses it. Deven assumes that Jain is paying Chiku, but then, Chiku starts demanding pay from Deven and threatening to quit. One day, Nur finally performs a new poem and even writes it down in Deven’s notebook. But then, he walks out of the room, says he needs “primordial sleep,” and never returns.
At Jain’s shop, Deven finally listens to his recordings and realizes that they’re mostly full of crackling sounds and laughter—but not Nur’s voice. Jain sends another nephew, Pintu, to help Deven edit the recordings in Mirpore. But Pintu is just as lazy and incompetent as Chiku. One of Deven’s students, Dhanu, does it instead with the help of some friends. Still, their master tape is just a “bizarre pastiche” of random clips of Nur’s voice, and when Siddiqui hears it, he predicts that the college will fire Deven for wasting its money. Then, Pintu starts demanding payment, and Dhanu and his friends start demanding the top grades in Deven’s class. Meanwhile, Nur starts sending Deven letters asking for money for medical treatments and a free education at Deven’s college for his son. Deven and his bothersome colleague Jayadev discuss the death of the humanities and agree that they should have become scientists instead.
When Safiya mails him a 500-rupee bill for the brothel room, it’s the last straw. Deven visits Delhi to demand his pay from Murad, but Murad refuses and offers to buy the tape of Nur’s voice instead. Deven finally stands up for himself reminds Murad that the college owns the tapes. He spends the rest of the scorching, late-summer day wandering around Old Delhi, wondering whether poetry can still make a difference in modernizing India.
Back in Mirpore, Deven opens a lengthy letter from Imtiaz, who explains that she knew he was recording Nur the whole time. She includes several of her own poems for Deven to read—but predicts that he won’t read them, since her success threatens his sense of male superiority. She is right: he doesn’t read the poems.
Desperate to pay the brothel bill, Deven visits Siddiqui, who has just sold off his house but refuses to help. Nur sends Deven another letter asking for money, and Dhanu’s friends threaten to kill him because he didn’t inflate their grades. That night, unable to sleep, Deven walks down to the canal where he took Manu. Even if Nur has become a senile, desperate old man, Deven decides, he should remember Nur for his brilliant poetry and their brief moments of intellectual connection. Nur might have put Deven “in custody” through his debts, but in exchange, Deven has become “the custodian of Nur’s very soul and spirit.” Deven realizes that he has no choice but to fight for his job and the survival of poetry; suddenly emboldened, he turns around and runs home.
