The House on East Canal Road

Raman, Neerja

ISBN 10: 1665716916 / ISBN 13: 9781665716918

Published by Archway Publishing, 2022

About this Item

Supports Goodwill of Silicon Valley job training programs. The cover and pages are in very good condition! The cover and any other included accessories are also in very good condition showing some minor use. The spine is straight, there are no rips tears or creases on the cover or the pages.

Seller Inventory # GWSVV.1665716916.VG

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The House on East Canal Road
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1665716916
• ISBN 13: 9781665716918
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: very_good

About this title

Synopsis

Born into poverty, Kishan Chand Das marries his childhood sweetheart and builds a fortune, but in 1905, when India is firmly in the grip of the Raj, he abandons it all to fight British rule. His young family’s survival is threatened. Willful Leela—his teenage daughter-in-law—and errant son Ishaan, gather the pieces but when the aged patriarch dies from beatings inflicted at a peaceful protest, the family is once again torn apart.
Journalist son Adrith leaves home to rouse the nascent Calcutta underground with fiery speeches and joins a revolutionary army. Fearless, outspoken, convent-educated Anita becomes the third generation Chand to continue the freedom fight, but she falls in love with the enemy—handsome Sergeant Ludlow. Can she, her family, and India, survive the hastily drawn line on a map far away, that cleaved houses, loved ones, and neighbors alike—the price of independence?

“An evocative, well-imagined portrayal of late-colonial India through one family’s eyes.”
— Kirkus Reviews

“Raman has an eye for historical detail, like Kishan’s assessment of a train car (“clean symmetrical lines, padded leather seats, side panels adorned with windows...the coach, designed and built by the American Car & Foundry Company…”), and a solid grasp of the real history that shapes the lives of the fictional characters.
The writing is strong…the thoughtful exploration of the experience of colonialism makes the story a rewarding read...”
— Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

About:

My father told bedtime stories with a glint in his eye that belied the grin on his face. When he stopped we chorused  "and the moral of the story is.... greed leads to grief, ego leads to fall, fighting leads to loss.." and so on. One story that shaped me is The Two Cats (see About on neerjaraman.com)

I am a research scientist. I started programming when software was being invented. I loved writing code: it is logical, definitive, purposeful. If it doesn't work, you fix it- machines don't care. So much like my childhood when I knew good from bad, right from wrong. I loved my job. I lived a in a world I understood. I got paid. Handsomely.

When I became a manager (no coding, all talking) I found to my dismay that people are nothing like machines. I stumbled in my job till I remembered the story of the two cats. That is when I started writing. Not Cobol or C++ but English. At first I wrote technical stuff - it is halfway between man and machine after all.

Now I research social issues. So I write fiction. Stories that masquerade as essays, memoirs that are fiction and just plain old stuff I wake up with.

If I can write stories of hope in the face of hurt, shine some light where it is dark, laugh in the hour of sorrow and escape from the mundane  ... if...if. ..the list is long.

I especially want to give voice to all the good in the world to help me face the news onslaught about racism, fanaticism, intolerance. I hope one day I may catalyze a dialog about our differences. I hope we can be on the same side even if we don't share religion, race or class.

I want to write about bad people doing good and good people doing bad.

And I want to make it entertaining so someone will read what I write.