Author: Sagarika Ghose
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 345
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8172234139
Description
This novel is a many-layered story that explores the conflicts of love, ambition - and of being a stranger in your own land. A tragicomedy of manner which holds up the severe clashes of social class in modern India.
Uma, the England-returned graduate. Academic Madhavi and journalist Dhruv. Civil servant Shantanu and his wife Anusuya. Deekay, the middle-class revolutionary. Pamela Sen, the dedicated teacher. Ikram Gilchrist, the famous author. Are they the irrelevant Indians? In the new India, do they matter all? The old social order is changing. Those born into English-speaking privilege must yield ground for others. The vernacular man has only himself, but his belonging gives him a peculiar power.
What is the destiny of Jaiprakash, who carries a treasured secret? Fat Mrs. Khurana with the uncertain accent is not what she seems. And why is a mysterious gang of thieves stealing rare books from the houses of the well-heeled? Sam, a visiting Englishman, cannot understand. Uma's fear of him.
Many forces seethe in urban India today, and those who ,must participate in the social change stand to lose themselves and their colonial attitudes. But in the process, they could gain a new world and perhaps a more just peace.
THE AUTHOR
Sagarika Ghose was born and educated in New Delhi. She was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University in 1987 and since 1991 has worked as a journalist in New Delhi.