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PROLOGUE

The first tiain, I felt as if I’d been hit

I have heard that said a thousand ti: there was a delay, in which , and then a physical shock that went straight through reat blow I am not a fanciful person I don’t dress up my words But I can say truthfully that it left ain Not in a place like that I had long since buried her in someshe had h Because I hadn’t understood what she had done until time – aeons – had passed That, inthat had ever happened to me

But it wasn’t just the shock of her physical presence There was grief too I suppose in o Seeing her as she was now, surrounded by all those people, looking soed, so di place for her I grieved for what had once been so beautiful, nificent, even, reduced to

I don’t know Perhaps that’s not quite fair None of us lasts for ever, do we? If I’ her like that was an unwelcome reminder of my own mortality Of what I had been Of e all must become

Whatever it was, there, in a place I had never been before, in a place I had no reason to be, I had found her again Or perhaps she had found me

I suppose I hadn’t believed in Fate until that point But it’s hard not to, when you think how far we had both come

Hard not to when you think that there was no way, across miles, continents, vast oceans, ere ain

India, 2002

She had woken to the sound of bickering Yapping, irregular, explosive, like the sound a s makes when it is yet to discover where the trouble is The old wo the back of her neck where the air-conditioning had cast the chill deep into her bones, and tried to straighten up In those first few blurred moments of wakefulness she was not sure where, or even who, she was She radually the words becaes fro I didn’t like the palaces Or the te I’ve spent teeks here and I don’t feel I got close to the real India’

‘What do you think I aently

‘You knohat I mean’

‘I am Indian Raland does not make me less Indian’

‘Oh, come on, Jay, you’re hardly typical’

‘Typical of what?’

‘I don’t know Ofman shook his head dismissively ‘You want to be a poverty tourist’

‘That’s not it’

‘You want to be able to go hos you’ve seen How they have no idea of the suffering And all we have given you is Coca-Cola and air-conditioning’

There was laughter The old woman squinted at her watch It was almost half past eleven: she had been asleep al forward between the two front seats ‘Look, I just want to see so that tells uides want to show you are princely abodes or shopping hela’s voice: ‘I can take you to my home, Miss Jennifer Now this is slunored hihela here and you will also find the poor, the downtrodden and the dispossessed’ He shrugged ‘You know, it is a wonder to me how I have survived this many years’

‘We, too, wonder almost daily,’ Sanjay said

The old woht of herself in the rear-view mirror Her hair had flattened on one side of her head, and her collar had left a deep red indent in her pale skin

Jennifer glanced behind her ‘You all right, Gran?’ Her jeans had ridden a little down her hip, revealing a sot a tattoo? She smoothed her hair, unable to reme to apologise for,’ said Mr Vaghela ‘We mature citizens should be allowed to rest e need to’

‘Are you saying you want me to drive, Ram?’ Sanjay asked

‘No, no, Mr Sanjay, sir I would be reluctant to interrupt your scintillating discourse’

The old ed and vulnerable from sleep, the old woman forced herself to smile in response to what she assumed was a deliberate wink

They had, she calculated, been on the road for nearly three hours Their trip to Gujarat, her and Jennifer’s last-minute incursion into the otherwise her holiday, had started as an adventure (‘My friend froe – Sanjay – his parents have offered to put us up for a couple of nights, Gran! They’ve got theplace, like a palace It’s only a few hours away’) and ended in near disaster when the failure of their plane to meet its scheduled slot left them only a day in which to return to Boht home

Already exhausted by the trip, she had despaired privately She had found India a trial, an overwhel bombardment of her senses even with the filters of air-conditioned buses and four-star hotels, and the thought of being stranded in Gujarat, even in the palatial confines of the Singhs’ hoh had volunteered the use of their car and driver to ensure ‘the ladies’ h it was due to take off from an airport so around at railway stations,’ she said, with a delicate gesture towards Jennifer’s bright blonde hair ‘Not unaccompanied’

‘I can drive them,’ Sanjay had protested But hisabout an insurance claireed instead to accohela, to make sure they were not bothered when they stopped That kind of thing Once it had irritated her, the assuether could not be trusted to take care of therateful for such old-fashioned courtesy She did not feel capable of negotiating her way alone through these alien landscapes, found herself anxious with her risk-taking granddaughter, for who seemed to hold any fear She had wanted to caution her several times, but stopped herself, conscious that she sounded feeble and treht to be fearless, she ree