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Sundaram bounces in and out of precarious situations like Pip in an African version of Great Expectations, and what he lacks in common sense, he makes up for in grit. When his cell phone is snatched by a young thief, Sundaram plunges after him, into a truly vile slum, in the vain hope that he will be able to buy the phone (with its addresses and numbers) back. On another occasion, heading off in a communal taxi to deposit his U.S. dollars in a bank, he is robbed at gunpoint by his fellow passengers. Enraged, but still innocent, Sundaram brings his complaint to a police station; believing, somehow, that the police will recover his money. They won't even look, he learns, without a substantial bribe to prime the pump. If Sundaram was lacking in cynicism at that stage in his career as a reporter, he makes no excuses; and it lends a fresh and charming candor to his writing.