Ansua Dutta

River Dolphins Ansua Dutta

Publisher Marketing: "It was never about winning or losing, it was never about fighting for something, it was never about whose land it was, it was only about an ideology that became stale on its way. I was not reborn again after I died the night I helped to kill.... I was sleeping when both my mothers died, ....when I held my old and sobbing nurse in my arms, her brown wrinkled skin smelled of a smoky charcoal fire, the one that warms the milk and cooks the rice." " Now the leaf floats on the water. Rain falls on it but it cannot stop its journey. Carried away by the current, the leaf sometimes bobs and sometimes floats sideways, but it continues on, moving. Jhorna follows it as she stumbles along the muddy bank, her feet slipping on the smooth and cold mud. Then, there are tipsy little boats tied next to each other, each bobbing against the other, their long slim prows pointing to the river and she cannot go any further. She watches her leaf bounce up and down in the current until she cannot see it anymore. "I am the keeper of leave-taking" Three generations. Three voices. "River Dolphins" follows the story of a family in India living through the end of the British Raj and its aftermath. The life of each generation is touched, shadowed, shaped by the larger historical forces in play. But rather than charting a chronological history, this novella weaves together individual scenes and moments of intense perception from the lives of Mohan, the fair skinned son of an Indian estate owner; his daughter Jhorna; and his granddaughter, the "I" figure of the novella. She fulfills the Indian dream of a foreign education and leaves home with a pocket full of memories.