Shubha Sarma, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, is inspired by Tolstoy, Chekov, O Henry and Indian literary greats like Premchand and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Like these literary greats, Sarma has woven compelling narrative of short fictional stories in her maiden book, titled 'Fly on the Wall and Other Stories'. The book has 13 engaging stories that capture different facets of life.

Three out of the 13 stories in the book document her 14-year experience in the bureaucracy. They expose the pulls and pressures imposed on the young bureaucrat, how an IPS officer works in the hotbed of Naxal terrorism and the hollowed hopes of e-governance.

Titled 'Case No. 33/08', one story describes a young woman officer in her first job who displays extreme courage in exposing the district magistrate's sexual relationship with a primary school teacher and his involvement in homicide. The investigation was not easy for the young police officer, Shambhavi Sinha. A few weeks into the investigation, she secures clinching evidence against the DM. Sinha hands over the document to her boss, presuming it would meet the logical conclusion. Instead, her senior closes the case for want of judicial scrutiny and reprimands the protagonist for not doing the job satisfactorily.

Driving the final nail in the coffin, Sinha gets transferred to police training, a common occurrence in our country – like honest officers such as Durga Shakti Nagpal and Ashok Khemka being the latest.

However, Sinha’s story doesn't end here. A photocopy of the investigation file gets stolen from her office; the undeterred IPS officer goes an extra mile to recover the original file from the DM’s office in his absence; meanwhile, bowing to pressure, Sinha goes for police training after secretly sending the file to the media, which splashes the news. The DM is immediately suspended and his senior is transferred. The young IPS officer wonders, "How many similar cases were lying buried in the dusty, mofussil towns scattered all over this country."

Another story – 'No Man's Land' – is set on the theme of Naxal violence. As IPS officer, Anish takes on ultra-Left terrorism head on even as his wife, Reva, is worried of his safety. Soon, a mole planted by the Naxals at the IPS officer’s home in the form of a caretaker becomes attached to the couple's three-year-old son. During one operation, the officer succeeds in killing the de facto head of the district’s Maoists.  In retaliation, the ultras first poison Anish then conspire to kill the entire family.

On the day of the attack, the caretaker somehow learns about the ultras’ plan and informs Reva about the impending attack. Reva plans an escape route by asking for an ambulance from the district and escapes with the whole family in the vehicle. Next day, the newspapers are flooded with stories about the  attack on IPS officer's house and murder of his staff. The story, though, doesn't end here.

Sarma beautifully describes the moral questions that trouble Reva: how did their escape leave the security forces, sitting ducks against the armed extremists? Should she have alerted the police at the risk of blowing their own cover?

In another story, the author also exposes hollow claims of the e-governance project in a district that was awarded the prime minister's award for e-governance. A district magistrate who successfully implements e-governance gets a rude shock years later when he returns to the district to get birth certificate of his grandson: his application is rejected. Reason: he had not made contributions to the state Red Cross fund, the rifle club and the earthquake victims’ relief fund. But even as the computer failed, a Rs 500 note delivered the much-needed birth certificate – the money paid by his former subordinate.

All these are red hot issues plaguing Indian bureaucracy. For the reader, they could even be real-life characters, as the author deftly plots them in the ‘scheme’ of things. Sarma traverses from the rural to the urban milieu in different stories with ease, showing her comfort in both set-up. While the stories based on bureaucracy – obviously inspired by slices and real characters in her career – are compelling, she is equally at ease with stories that are beyond the babudom.
The book has drawn praise from Shashi Tharoor – career diplomat turned author turned politician. "A compelling read, overflowing with acutely-observed, cleverly plotted, artlessly-told stories that hold your attention from the first to the last," Tharoor writes about the book