Ba slipped the gold bangles from my wrists. The gold ones were plain so I didn’t mind taking them off, but I loved wearing my milk-glass bangles and the lakkh bracelets. "A widow can't wear bangles,” she said. "They are signs of a woman's good fortune. When your husband dies it's over.""What if my good fortune comes back?"“It doesn’t.”Pretty as a peacock, twelve-year-old Leela has been spoiled all her life by everyone in her Gujarat village. She’s never been interested in school and barely takes notice of the growing unrest between the British colonists and her own countrymen. Why should she? Her future has been planned since her engagement at two and marriage at nine.
