Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra

Author:Vikram Chandra [Chandra, Vikram]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780316092869
Google: bMU4eXA4OCAC
Amazon: B004ZGZDCU
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Published: 1995-11-29T08:00:00+00:00

THE BOOK OF REVENGE AND MADNESS

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‘THAT’S WHERE they’re all falling in love,’ Saira said. We were taking our customary interval break on the roof, exclaiming at the audience, which now filled the entire maidan and spilled over onto the roofs of the houses at the furthest edge. At the west end of the maidan there had sprung up a bazaar of thela-wallahs selling fruits, ice-cream, kulfi, film magazines, chat and kitchen appliances. At the east end, under the row of trees, where Saira was pointing, were the shadows where boys were undoubtedly meeting girls who had stolen away from their parents.

‘Scandalous,’ Mrinalini said, smiling. ‘Which reminds me, Abhay, I met my friend Mrs Khanna this morning. Her daughter’s finishing her B.A. next month. She was asking me when I was going to bring my U.S.A.-returned son for tea.’

‘Oh, Mother,’ Abhay said.

‘What?’ Mrinalini said. ‘Why not?’

‘It can’t be that simple,’ Abhay said.

‘We’ll have to see,’ Hanuman said. ‘If she’s worthy of our Abhay.’

‘Educated, charming, shy and yet somehow slightly naughty,’ Ganesha said. ‘Wilful and loyal, and beautiful. For our Abhay.’

I passed this on a note to Saira, who burst out laughing. ‘You might as well get your suits stitched, bhaiya,’ she said, handing him the note. ‘With interested relatives like Hanuman and Ganesha, your life’s going to get very complicated very soon.’

At which point Abhay muttered, ‘I have a story to tell,’ and fled down the stairs.

‘We had heard a story of love,’ he was typing a few minutes later as I swung up on the bed next to him. ‘An encounter with an ideal in an American high school, that crucible in which the world’s most weightless and alluring myths are perfected. We were on the road, you remember, looking for the good life, life free of gravity, for a light-filled paradise on earth.’

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