Age of Vice

By afternoon, Sunny and Farah are married. Ajay arrives at the Wadia farmhouse, the venue for post-wedding festivities. Tinu, the household manager, asks Ajay to wait in the lawn where drinks are being served. When a wedding guest asks Ajay to serve him a beer, Ajay stares back, indicating that he is not the deferential young man he used to be. Ajay watches Sunny arrive from the Gurudwara where he was married, and follows him inside the farmhouse villa. Sunny tells Ajay that he has changed. Sunny can use a man like Ajay, since everything is going to change soon. Ajay reminds Sunny that he has used this line on him before. Tinu comes in and tells Ajay that Bunty Wadia has asked for him.

Bunty tells Ajay that what Sunny did to him was wrong, but it was part of a larger plan. A deal ending Ajay’s imprisonment will soon be in place. Once he gets out, Ajay can work with the Wadias again, for even more money. Just then, Bunty receives a tip that Sunil Rastogi has been traced to a Christian commune in New Delhi, going by the alias Peter Mathews. Bunty decides Ajay will kill Rastogi. Ajay agrees to kill Rastogi on the condition that Bunty find his sister and keep her safe. Bunty agrees to get on the mission after Ajay has killed Rastogi. Vicky Wadia’s convoy arrives for the wedding celebrations as Ajay leaves the farmhouse.

Bunty and Vicky talk in Bunty’s office. Bunty tells Vicky that some of his businesses, such as the trafficking of young girls, must stop. The world has changed. The Wadias are not goondas anymore. Vicky claims he was never a goonda; he was always a godman. He reminds Bunty that it was Bunty’s violent streak that launched the brothers into their current life. When they were children, they used to fly paper kites, the strings laced with glass to slash those of other kites. Bunty strangled a boy to death with the string to win a kite. His palms still bear the scars from the glass-coated string.

In Sunny’s quarters at the farmhouse, the party is in full swing, cocaine and MDMA in unending supply. The party in the lawn, comprised of bureaucrats, politicians, industrialists, celebrities, and media personnel, is more sedate. The wedding celebrations are a way for Bunty Wadia to exhibit his deep pockets and connections.

In the midst of the celebrations, Sunny experiences a panic attack about his future. He has asked Dinesh to get rid of Bunty, but he does not know how that will be achieved. Farah senses Sunny’s panic and asks him to follow her away from the crowd. She offers Sunny MDMA to calm down. Farah’s maternal grandfather is Giani Zarowar Singh, a powerful religious leader in Punjab who backs the state’s chief minister. Bunty met rich and ambitious Farah in Bhutan, and offered her Sunny’s hand in marriage in exchange for making her part of the Wadia business.

Armed with a Luger gun, Ajay reaches Kashmiri Gate, the place where he first arrived in Delhi all those years ago. He follows Tinu’s map to Civil Lines, where the Christian community is located. Ajay enters the commune, is mistaken for a man seeking counsel with the local pastor, and is offered food. Peter Mathews or Sanjay Rastogi enters the hall and begins chatting with Ajay. He recognizes Ajay as a prisoner from his crude tattoo. A mysterious phone call alerts Rastogi about Ajay, and he rushes out. Ajay follows him to the top floor of the house and the men grapple. Ajay tells Rastogi that he needs to shoot him to save his sister. He shows Rastogi the photo of the woman in the brothel. Rastogi says he recognizes the woman as a prostitute in Benares. She is not Ajay’s sister. Ajay has been lied to so he could be manipulated. Rastogi asks Ajay to stop killing for the people who have set him up. A distraught Ajay leaves. Rastogi smiles to himself because the story he told Ajay about knowing the woman in the picture is a complete lie. He keeps the photo that Ajay left behind in distress. He makes a call to someone that the problem has been solved, grabs a duffel bag, and leaves on a Yamaha sports bike.

The phone call Rastogi received was from Vicky Wadia. Vicky meets Sunny, high on MDMA, and expresses concern over Sunny’s state. Vicky tells Sunny his fortunes are about to change. Vicky always knew Sunny would go through a bleak period in his early twenties; it was written in Sunny’s stars. But now the stars are aligned in Sunny’s favor. Sunny wants Vicky to leave him alone. Vicky gives Sunny something his mother left for Sunny: an emerald ring. Sunny recalls the ring from Rastogi’s story. Sunny tells Vicky that he has already ordered a hit on Rastogi. This is when Vicky calls Rastogi and alerts him about Ajay.

Sunny is dancing in an MDMA-fueled frenzy. A convoy of police cars pulls up at the wedding reception. Dinesh and Vicky smile at each other. With Vicky’s support, Dinesh has facilitated the arrest of both Ram Singh and Bunty Wadia, on the many charges of murder, corruption, and kidnappings. The police have evidence, tacitly provided by Dinesh and Vicky. There is a minor scuffle between the cops and the Wadia and Singh men, but the cops manage to take Ram Singh and Bunty Wadia away in two separate cars. Eli grabs Sunny and Tinu and they follow the car carrying Bunty. When the car reaches Mehrauli, there is a traffic bottleneck. Sunil Rastogi pulls up next to Bunty and takes out a fully automatic AR-15 with 100 rounds on it from his duffel bag. He pumps several bullets into the police vehicle, killing Bunty and the cops inside and speeds away on his Yamaha bike. Sunny rushes to the ruined police vehicle and sees his father’s shattered body.

Ajay is on a bus to Manali, where he worked as a child. He has thrown away the Luger gun and plans to start a new life in the hills where he grew up. The bus pulls up at a rest stop, where Ajay orders some chai. There, he sees the newsflash about Bunty Wadia’s murder on the TV. The novel ends, and the action will continue in its sequel.