Side Streets

New York City is close to boiling over on the hottest day of the year.

Staten Island Cab-driver, Bipin Raj, picks up a passenger, mistakes her for a movie star, but tells her that his brother, Vikram Raj, is a very well-known Bollywood mega-star with millions of fans, and is currently living with him and his family of his wife and two children. But all is not hunky dory in the Raj household, for Mrs. Chandra Bipin Raj, who initial thrill at meeting her mega-star brother-in-law, has shimmered down, and she is anxious for him to leave. Vikram Raj, no doubt may have been a handsome man in his younger years, but now he is alcoholic, grossly overweight, macho, and lazy. But all is not lost, for Vikram has several ardent fans visit him, and dance to his filmy songs and tunes, much to Chandra's exasperation. Then a few days later, Vikram claims that Al Pacino has phoned him and wants to meet and discuss a movie script. The Raj family give him a fond farewell. This short story as well as the story of a dress-designer; a drug-dealer working at a meat-shop; a beauty queen's slacker husband ET AL comprise of people of diverse cultures living their separate, yet inter-connected lives in this busy metropolis.