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Résumé :
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It is 1984, and New Delhi is simmering with ethnic strife as anti-Sikh riots erupt after prime minister India Gandhi`s assassination. This cataclysmic event serves as the backdrop to the day-to-day ordinariness of an immigrant Bengali family`s life. Chhobi, the elder, sensitive and intelligent, is forever trying to rein in beautiful, narcissistic Sonali. Ma, their mother, struggles with her loneliness after being widowed in her thirties; Dida is their feisty grandmother whose indomitable spirit prods the family on during times of adversity; and Dadu, their grandfather, is a man perpetually homesick for his estates, irretrievably lost as borders are redrawn to form Bangladesh. Sonny - rich, handsome and arrogant - enters Sonali`s life, only to jilt her. Sonali`s thwarted love affair, and a maritime misadventure are the catalysts that alter the predictable pattern of the Bengali family`s life and propels its women to find within themselves hitherto unknown strengths - and to evolve and deal with changed circumstances. The story traces the gradual erosion of old values, an acceptance of new identities and, for the grandfather, at last a sense of realization that Delhi is home.
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