Palot Mudra by Shahzad Firdaus [Hardcover]

If there is anything called the original sin of humankind, it is greed. Just as there is no end to the types of greed, there are no limits to its intensity either. Moreover, it does not belong to any particular class. Every person harbors it deep within their subconscious, nurturing it with utmost care. Often, it is not visible from the outside.

Thus, Mofiz, an extremely poor man known to the villagers as Nitai Kundu’s "ox," once found an ancient coin with an elephant emblem while fishing in Kundu’s pond. This discovery led him to build grand dreams and aspirations. However, his greed, sharp and gleaming like a polished blade, ultimately led to his tragic downfall at the hands of other greedy individuals.

When news of the valuable coin spread, impoverished villagers rushed to the freezing winter waters of Kundu’s pond in the dead of night, hoping to find more coins. This hope, in reality, was nothing but greed. On the other hand, Maqbul and Paran, while attempting to steal from Kundu’s house, were not content with just one sack of rice. The moment they reached for a second, disaster struck.

This chain of greed-driven events ignites a conflict between Kundu’s faction and the dispossessed class. This struggle takes on a symbolic and thought-provoking form in Shahzad Firdaus’s novel Palot Mudra.