"How to Get Away With Murder in Small-Town India"

NYT:

Jahiruddin, though uneducated, was an adept politician, fresh from winning a hard-fought local election. During our conversations, he would often break into rousing, patriotic speeches about truth and justice, thumping the plastic table in emphasis and making it jump. The effect was somewhat tarnished by his Tourette’s syndrome, which caused him to interject the word “penis” at regular intervals.

He was frank about the dirty aspects of his job. He occupied a post reserved for women from lower castes, but no one pretended this was any more than a sham; his wife’s name appeared on the ballot, but the face on the poster was his.

...

We drove to the nearest police station, a few miles away, and a young constable, Jahangir Khan, was sent out to speak to us. . . . he said he could tell that I was American because my nose shook when I talked, a national characteristic he had observed while watching James Bond films.