Growing up in a small town, in the shadow of a busy railway junction, Arun dreams of escape from his low-caste family and a life full of deprivation and everyday acts of violence.
At the prestigious IIT college, he meets two students, also from impoverished towns, who seem to possess the sheer will to smash through merciless social barriers. The alumni of IIT become the financial wizards of their generation, travelling to workplaces and playgrounds, from New York to Tuscany and Kalimantan. Arun and his friends are the recipients of unprecedented financial and sexual freedom, with no awareness or concern for its true costs.
Run and Hide is the story of achieving material progress at great moral and emotional cost. It is the story of a group of friends, a changing country and global order; it is also the story of many lives over the last thirty years.