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A review by roses_readingspace
Things to leave behind by Namita Gokhale
4.0
Namita’s new novel ‘Things to Leave Behind’, is a rich, panoramic historical novel set in Kumaon, in Nainital, Almora and Sat Tal, in the years 1842 to approximately 1912. The novel is about many things, colonialism and history and a first fragile modernity in a society steeped in tradition. These are the days of Firangi Raj, of Upper Mall Road (for Europeans and horses) and Lower Mall Road (for dogs, servants and other Indians). Readers follow the inter-twined story of spirited Tillotama Uprety, whose uncle is hanged during the ‘Mutiny’, her troubled daughter Deoki, missionary Rosemary Bodden and Deoki’s husband Jayesh Jonas into Bodden’s Utopian Eden Ashram, where artist William Dempster seeks out new Indians.
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I enjoyed the rich scenery of the book. The description of all the places it's set in is beautifully written. I also realised while the Indians under British Raj wanted freedom and were working towards it many were also in a dilemma. The dilemma that the British who are bringing modernization and so much progress in the country so is freedom from them the right path or not.
.
I enjoyed the rich scenery of the book. The description of all the places it's set in is beautifully written. I also realised while the Indians under British Raj wanted freedom and were working towards it many were also in a dilemma. The dilemma that the British who are bringing modernization and so much progress in the country so is freedom from them the right path or not.