RajmahalAn exploration of post-colonial Indian life through “engagingly embroidered stories that leave us replete and delighted” (The Sunday Tribune, India). Marriages, affairs, death, madness, and second chances all live within the walls of Rajmahal, an unusual Bengali house that has stood through a century of turbulent changes. Within the walls of this stately home, now divided into six apartments, the melting pot of tenants include Sikhs, Muslims, Brits, Russian-Bengalis, zamindari Bengalis, and Roman Catholics. As different as they are, all face the same struggle to come to grips with the social, economic, and intellectual forces working in India as it moves from the British Raj to independence. In this beautifully crafted tale, the intertwined fortunes and personal battles of these characters become a mirror of the country’s struggle for possession of its future. “The encompassing achievement of the novel is its penetration . . . of the life of the post-colonialist and post-colonized living on, somehow together” (Nadine Gordimer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature). |
Contents
The Book of Inheritance | |
The Book of Famine | |
The Book of Hope | |
Surjeet Shona Moves | |
The Landlords Family | |
Surjeet Shona Goes on a Journey | |
Gurdeep Grows | |
The Immanent Junior | |
Twice Married Twice Bereaved | |
Heavenly Hetaerae | |
A Love Story | |
The Scarlet | |
Memory | |
Glossary | |
Ali Malliks New Formula | |
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Common terms and phrases
adivasis Amit Amritsar apartment arms ayah became bedroom Bengali bhaiji body Bonzo breath British brother Calcutta club Dada dear death dhuti Doreen dream drink eyes face famine father feeling felt floor forget friends ghosts girl glass godown Granth Guliani Gurdeep Guru Guru Granth Sahib Gwen hair hand head Hindu husband Inderjeet Kaur Indian Jack Strachey Jainab knew Lalitha laughing Litha live looked M. N. Roy maidan married Martin Maudie Maudie's memory mind Mohini mother moved Mumtaz Muslim Myrna Nadira Neel never night normal Ohri Osheem pain Petrov Proshanto Mojumdar Punjabi Rajmahal Rawat Reema Devi remember Robi Rudrangshu Rudro Sahib Saira Sardar Bahadur servants shaheb Shudhangshu Shudo Sikh smiled stayed stop Surjeet Shona tears tell tenants theater tomb trying turned Uncle veranda voice vultures waiting walked watched watchman whispered wife wondered