Summary

Chapter 1 begins with Raka’s arrival to Carignano. Nanda Kaul thought she seemed like an insect, Raka thought Nanda Kaul seemed like a feature of the landscape. In Chapter 2, Raka looked around Carignano a bit, then slipped out the window and considered the view of the Pasteur Institute before climbing over the veranda railing to climb around the adjacent knoll. She returned to the house in Chapter 3 and talked to Ram Lal about the Pasteur Institute before sitting silently with Nanda Kaul for a cup of tea.

Chapter 4 encompasses a longer, undefined stretch of time to explain Raka’s habit of disappearing all day and returning in the evening dirty and scratched up. Raka’s solitary indifference disturbed Nanda Kaul, but they managed to find a rhythm where they lived together by ignoring and avoiding each other. Nanda Kaul began to admire...