I listened to the audiobook, and you might like to also, to get an authentic Indian voice telling an epic story which spans from 1955 to 1990. The deep themes of childhood innocence, impossible relationships across the class divide, Communist idealism and violence, and the beauty of the landscape of Telangana will definitely hold you. But these are transcended by the characters - whom you will love.
Diwali came in late October.
For the entire month preceding the festival day, everyone indentured to the Deshmukhs was put to hard, laborious work. Made to burnish every bit of the house - teak stripped and varnished, copper and silver buffed with tamarind concoctions, floors scrubbed, grout in the Chettinad tile re-done with cotton wads. The exterior walls received a coat of white limewash so blinding that it hurt to look at the gadi in the afternoon. The delicious tang of turpentine and stripped iron emanated off every doorway, every window frame. The gadi was full with the annual arrival of close, and distant, Deshmukh relatives. The kitchens were not sufficient to handle the meals of so many people, and parts of the orchard were cleared of shrubs, outdoor cooking fires set up.
