When the East India Company sells one of its village bungalows to a Bengali aristocrat, the erstwhile manager, Hamilton sahib, finds himself homeless in his adopted country. A mother leaves her house and her notions of chastity in order to feed her children. A Muslim woman fights for her right to be identified as herself – not by her caste, religion or husband’s name. One of the most powerful writers of his time, Sunil Gangopadhyay traces the dreams of a generation of men and women, through the forgotten bylanes of Calcutta, past the canal that flows next to the newly built VIP Road, across the broken bridge to the village of Chitalmari, and further back in time, to the mysterious cave where the Buddha’s shadow still appears, and to the Primal Woman, who preceded Eve as Adam’s lover but had to pay a huge price for asking to be treated as Adam’s equal. Within these pages, you will read about the desperation that drives human actions, the struggle to cull one’s sense of self and the unending search for faith. Translated with rare feeling and felicity by Aruna Chakravarti, one of India’s finest translators, these fifteen stories explore a startling range of ideas that showcase the master storyteller at his finest.
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