The fictional world
None of these people exist. All of their arithmetic does.
Somewhere in an India that is almost this one, a man in Kochi is deciding about a phone, a woman in Bhopal is opening a notebook on a bank officer’s desk, and a claims processor in Vadodara is explaining that everything costs ₹999. They have never met. They share a country, a currency and a set of rules about lending, and those three things are real. Everything else we made up.
We made it up because a loan is not a formula. The formula is the easy part, and we publish it. The hard part is the Saturday in the shop with the salesman waiting, or the first of the month when the salary message does not arrive. You cannot put that in a calculator. You can put it in a story, and then set the calculator beside it.
So that is what this publication does. The story tells you what it was like. The receipt tells you what it cost. The blue note tells you what the rules say. We keep the three apart so you always know which one you are reading.
The people
Waiting instead of borrowing
The Phone He Didn't Buy
- Rehan D'Souza
- , 26, edits wedding films in Kochi
- Jyoti Menon
- , his colleague, who signed
- Binu
- , a salesman at Dhamaka Digital
- Philomena D'Souza
- , his mother, who does not dance
Small instalments, added up
The ₹999 Man
- Paresh Solanki
- , 36, processes insurance claims in Vadodara
- Hetal Solanki
- , his wife, teaches maths in the front room
- Bapuji
- , his father, 74
- Mistry
- , a colleague, and a customer
A short-term loan
One Missed Payday
- Nandini Rao
- , 29, front-desk supervisor at a hotel in Mysuru
- Mr. Ananthamurthy
- , her landlord, a retired sub-registrar
- Farhan
- , the night auditor, kind and indiscreet
- Kshanbhar
- , a loan app, invented for this story
Borrowing that pays its way
The Machine in the Front Room
- Shabnam Ansari
- , 38, a tailor in Bhopal
- Pinky Raikwar
- , 19, her assistant
- Imtiaz Ansari
- , her husband, drives a school van
- Mr. Tirkey
- , a loans officer at Saptarang Bank
- Guddu bhai
- , runs an embroidery unit near the bus stand
A group loan
The Thursday Group
- Selvi
- , who bought a cow
- Muthulakshmi
- , who owns the veranda and does the dividing
- Rani, Kavitha and Pushpa
- , the other three
The institutions
Every lender and shop in our stories is invented. We searched each lender’s name on 10 November 2026 and found no real financial institution using it. If you know of one, tell us and we will rename ours.
- Chabutra Finance
A consumer-loan company whose orange tablets sit on shop counters. A chabutra is the raised platform outside a house where people sit and talk.
Appears in The Phone He Didn't Buy
- Kshanbhar
An instant-loan app. The word means "in a moment". It keeps that promise, and shows its price before it takes a rupee.
Appears in One Missed Payday
- Saptarang Bank
A bank with glass-topped desks and at least one loans officer who reads applications slowly. Saptarang means "seven colours".
Appears in The Machine in the Front Room
- Lalten Microfinance
A microfinance lender that works through small groups. A lalten is a lantern.
Appears in Ripple Effects: The Thursday Group
- Dhamaka Digital
An electronics shop with a velvet square on the counter and a board that shows the monthly amount in large type.
Appears in The Phone He Didn't Buy
What the world is for
It is not here to warn you off borrowing. Shabnam’s loan was a good decision and the story says so. Rehan’s refusal cost him photographs he will not get back, and the story says that too.
It is here so that the next time someone tells you a monthly amount, you hear the questions the characters learnt to ask. For how many months? What is the price? What does it come to in all? What would have to be true for this to be worth it?
Then you decide. You know your life. We only know the arithmetic.