Chapter 1 Summary

There is a heat wave in the town of Shahkot, India. Everyone in the country is obsessed with the temperature, praying for a monsoon. Innovative suggestions are offered: Vermaji of the university invents a giant fan to bring in the monsoon clouds; the police offer to sponsor a frog wedding to be performed by temple priests; and jets could fly in special formations that would drive the clouds—just to name a few. The heat causes the roads to become pools of tar. Plants grow limp and weak. Tourist buses turn around and leave. By September, hope for monsoon has vanished. Food is scarce. Supply planes fly over but do not stop in Shahkot.

Twenty-one year old Kulfi Chawla is pregnant during this drought, growing amazingly large in the oppressive heat. She is so large that people stare while she seems to...