Sunlight on a Broken Column - Opening

Chapter One

The day my aunt Abida moved from the zenana into the guest-room off the corridor that led to the men's wing of the house, within call of her father's room, we knew Baba Jan had not much longer to live.

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams

In death's dream kingdom

These do not appear :

There, the eyes are

Sunlight on a broken column

There, is a tree swinging

And voices are

In the wind's singing

More distant and more solemn

Than a fading star.

T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men

First published in the UK by Chatto & Windus 1961

Published with a new introduction by Virago Press 1988

Published in Penguin Books India 1992

Copyright Attia Hosain, 1961, 1988

Introduction copyright Anita Desai 1988

All rights reserved

For sale in the Indian Subcontinent only

Printed at Rashtrya Printers