Summary

Subhash takes a bus to Boston and begins the long trip home. He lands in Delhi, and boards a train to Howrah Station. On the train, other passengers tell him that by 1970 the Naxalites had gone underground, surfacing only to attack, intimidate voters, fire pipe guns, and hide bombs in public places. They killed the French consul’s wife; assassinated the vice-chancellor of Jadavpur University; and took control of certain neighborhoods, including Tollygunge. New laws gave police and paramilitary the right to enter without warrants, and arrest without charges. Subhash realizes then that police killed his brother.

Home is strange to him at first. Subhash had forgotten how the concentration of so many people in one place came with a stench of its own. His father’s younger cousin, Biren Kaka and his wife are waiting for him when he arrives. His...