Part 2, Chapter 15 Summary

Chapter 15 opens with a critique of Aurora's new painting style: moving toward black and white abstraction. At age fifty-five, she allows her manager, Kekoo Mody, to mount a retrospective exhibition of her works at the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay's elite turn out for the occasion, and she is bathed in flattery. Come the morning papers, however, she is blasted as an artistic has-been, while Uma Sarasvati's sculpture, exhibited across town, is hailed as the future of Indian art. Uma, who had never shown any particular interest in religion, reveals herself as a devotee of Lord Ram. Moor confronts her secrecy. Aurora, brooding in Elephanta, says Uma is ambitious and conniving, and discloses that she has hired a once-renowned private investigator, Dom Minto, to obtain proof of her claim. Mother and son clash, but Minto's findings sting: Uma is a married...