National Network for Equitable Library Service

Ramya, an immigrant from India, is nearing her 50th birthday. But there's no cause to cheer. Recently separated, and laid off from work as well, she feels lonely, alienated, and despondent. Then one day she chances upon a sandalwood box containing her cherished childhood treasures, and this triggers the need to review her present circumstances. In a bid to bring herself out of the quagmire of depression, she examines the relationships she has had--filial, marital, quasi-maternal, societal, professional, et al. Delving into her past, Ramya tries to find strength to reconstruct her future, to rediscover meaning and purpose. Written with sympathy and humour, the novel has two intertwined threads simultaneously unspooling: one set in the present about Ramya's battle to rebuild her life; the other, a series of sorties into the past. One narrative skein is Canadian, modern and multicultural, while the other is Indian, steeped in myth and mysticism. They are the two sides of the same coin: the world as seen through the bi-focal lens of immigrant reality.