Summary

Part 3 begins with Raka, Nanda Kaul, and Ram Lal waiting and watching as Ila Das made her way up the road toward Carignano amidst a group of kids who were following and harassing her. Chapter 2 shifts to Nanda Kaul’s interior recollections of Ila Das. The narrative focuses on the incongruencies of Ila Das’s life, having been born to a wealthy family that was favored by the British, but always a pariah, partly due to her voice, and now a broken and destitute woman. Nanda Kaul also recalled how they had been friends since childhood.

Ila Das arrived at Carignano in Chapter 3, and in a comic scene she situated herself and met Raka, who was unsure how to respond to Ila Das’s overly familiar manner. In Chapter 4, Nanda Kaul, Raka, and Ila Das sat down to tea. Ila Das almost...