Summary

Chapter 1 opens with Nanda Kaul thinking about her own solitude at Carignano and how all she wanted was to be left alone, when the sight of the postman walking up the road distracted her. Chapter 2 shifts to the postman plodding up the road and recalling the history of Carignano, running through all of its previous owners and what happened to them. In Chapter 3, Ram Lal was returning from the bazaar and met the postman on the road. They walked up to the house together, making a bit of awkward small talk. When Nanda Kaul received the letter, she resolved to refuse whatever request it contained. In Chapter 4 Nanda Kaul read the letter from her daughter Asha, which informed her that Asha’s granddaughter Tara was going to Geneva and would be sending her daughter Raka to stay at Carignano. The idea of her great-granddaughter...