It was cold and smoggy the day Delhi was nuked. For Dilip Kumar, though, 1 January 2035 began like any other weekday. He woke up in his one-room apartment in the urban ghetto of Sangam Vihar, the seepage from the pink wall spilling on to the bunk beds in the room he shared with three other men. All had left their villages with eyes full of big dreams, swiftly snuffed by the neon-lit gas chamber Delhi had become. Like his flatmates, Dilip worked as a delivery partner, the modern version of a cart-puller. The transportation company that hired him gave...