Book 1, Chapters 1 -2 Summary

As Chapter 1 opens, Pishi is telling Sudha and Anju the story about the Bidhata Purush, a god who visits babies the night they are born to write the child's fortune on their forehead. Pishi is one of Sudha and Anju's three mother-figures. They have no fathers. Pishi is actually the girls' widowed aunt who came to live in her younger brother's home after the death of her husband. In addition to her motherly duties, Pishi loves to tell the girls the old stories. Gouri Ma is Anju's birth mother. She acts as the leader of the family. She instills pride in Sudha. Nalini is Sudha's mother. Sudha describes her mother as beautiful, but often disappointed or worried.

Pishi had been the one to spend the first night with the two new born babies after they were born prematurely. Sudha...