In 1939, thirteen years before I was born, my father’s aunt, Mayadebi, went to England with her husband and her son, Tribid.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: This line of narration is the first sentence of the entire novel. Notably, as the line indicates, it refers to a time before the narrator was even born. This line not only helps to establish the narrative importance of this trip to England, but it also helps to establish the fact that the narrative often focuses on events outside the scope of the narrator’s direct experiences.

The next time I met her was seventeen years later, when I went to London myself…on a year’s research grant…for a PhD thesis.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: This line of narration transitions from a memory of May visiting Calcutta to a memory of the narrator seeing May in London, 17 years later. This transitions helps to establish the way in which the narrative...