Raju was always disappointed that when he went fishing with Baba, they saw not one single crocodile, not one shark. He sometimes dreamt of meeting a massive crocodile at the riverside and that he had beaten it away with nothing more than his oar, ramming it down the beast’s throat. He often bragged that his arms were so strong that if one day a crocodile had the misfortune of encountering him, he would grab its upper jaw with one hand and the lower jaw with the other and pulling with all his might, he would tear the brute’s head apart. He could not understand why the adults in the village were in such awe of the reptile.
Image credit: CC-BY-NC-SA Alex Wu
Read about Raju »
Book 1
Chapter 6
(Sundarbans, Eastern India, 1820s)
Raju's memories of his pre-Sundarban days, was a mixture of half-remembered facts and stories told by elders which had become more real every time he heard t...
Chapter 10
(Sundarbans, Eastern India, 1830)
As a child, Shanti had instinctively sensed Raju's apprehension whenever he came to their house. Her Pitaji treated the boy with contempt, as if he had just ...
Chapter 12
(Sundarbans, Eastern India, 1835)
Unexpectedly, as they were watching the river that morning, they saw a speck on the water in the distance, and she guessed that it was Jayant's boat, and ind...
Chapter 14
(Calcutta, India, 1835)
The road from Sonarkhali across the Pargannas to Calcutta could be fraught with all sorts of danger, none of the oft-repeated assurances to the contrary that...
Chapter 16: The Startled Fawn
(Calcutta, India, 1840s)
Shanti dozed off for she did not know how long, but when she woke up, Jayant had not come back. That Jayant is so unreliable, she thought.