Where is RK Narayan’s Malgudi and other Scroll.in stories you may have missed this week

Let us rewind the past week.

Month after India promised treatment for all HIV+ people, stocks of medicines run out in six states

Government hospitals in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Maharashtra and Delhi are out of the life-saving drugs while several other states are waiting for stocks of diagnostic kits. The crisis has forced many patients – who cannot afford to miss a single dose – to sell their valuables to buy medicines in the open market. Read more here.

Also read: In India, diabetes is fast becoming a disease of the poor

Where is RK Narayan’s Malgudi? It depends on whom you are asking

“I am often asked, ‘Where is Malgudi?’” wrote RK Narayan in the introduction to Malgudi Days. “All I can say is it is imaginary and not to be found on any map…” Over the years, writers and filmmakers have speculated on this famous town’s whereabouts. The upcoming Kannada film Thugs of Malgudi is the latest such attempt. Read more here.

The lost stories of Number 4 Squadron: India’s flyboys in post-WWII Japan

Seventy-one years ago, an Indian fighter squadron operated from a Japanese airbase for 15 months in the 1940s. But apart from some personal anecdotes, little is known of the remarkable feats of Number 4 Squadron, which was known for flying in a letter four formation during flypasts. Read more here.

Why an 80-year-old Indian transgender chooses a home in a graveyard over ‘normal’ life

Mona Ahmed has lived in Mehndiyan, a graveyard compound in Delhi, for three decades now. She once desired a home in the Capital’s numerous apartment blocks but after a life lived in public, she now sees no charm in the boxy flats that to her resemble prison cells. Read more here.

How the curry came to London (and why after the UK election, it may never taste the same again)

From William Makepeace Thackeray’s ode to curry and London’s first restaurant to serve curry (which came before its first fish-and-chips shop) to the pages of various Victorian cookbooks – it is clear that Britain has always taken a fancy to the spicy dish. Read more here.