My paternal grandfather migrated to India from a small, fertile village called Malakwal in present-day Pakistan, which was hugged as he lovingly used to say-by two rivers, the Chenab and Jhelum. He could never return to those banks after Partition, and yet it felt like he always carried the rivers with him, his disposition nourished and stories painted with their memory. I hadn't thought about this in a long time until I began reading Elif Shafak's newest novel, There are Rivers in the Sky (Penguin Random House), which made me pause and wonder if, for all these decades, the rivers of my grandfather's childhood have been waiting for him to return. After all, nature remembers for far longer than humans.
This memory of water flows through the novel. It is a sweeping tale of one lost poem, two formidable rivers and three protagonists connected to one another across centuries through a single drop of water. Our heroes are Arthur, a child with extraordinary memory, born in the grime of the Thames in 1840; Narin, a Yazidi girl journeying with her grandmother from Turkey to Iraq along the war-torn lands of the ancient Tigris in 2014; and Zaleekhah, a broken-hearted hydrologist living in a houseboat in 2018 London.
Bu hikaye VOGUE India dergisinin September - October 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye VOGUE India dergisinin September - October 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Sign of the times
No longer do you need to have an answer to, \"What is the significance of this?\" when people point to your new tattoo. ARMAN KHAN discovers that everything is on the table when you get inked temporarily
Return to form
Watching the world's most elite athletes deliver the best performances of their careers rekindled SONAKSHI SHARMA's own love for sports
Dimple, All Day
YOU MAY HAVE WATCHED HER ON THE BIG SCREEN FOR OVER FIVE DECADES, BUT DON'T MAKE THE MISTAKE OF ASSUMING THAT YOU KNOW DIMPLE KAPADIA.
MUSIC, TAKE CONTROL
As someone who had always sought safety in numbers, ALIZA FATMA often wondered what her own company would feel like. The answer arrived unexpectedly when she attended her first-ever music festival, one of the largest in the world, all alone
Let it grow
When we think of hardworking farmers toiling in India's scorching heat, we often think of men, the sweat on their brow, the sinews in their arms. JYOTI KUMARI speaks to four women who are championing the invisible female labour that keeps these fields running
YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE
When armless archer Sheetal Devi set her sights on the Paralympic Games this year, she knew she had a tough journey ahead of her. Luckily, her mother was with her every step of the way.
Beauty and the feast
The appeal of Indian weddings has always been in a sprawling spread. For additional bragging rights, Aditi Dugar recommends going beyond designer tablecloths and monogrammed napkins.
Sweet serendipity
From a scavenger hunt-inspired proposal to a Moroccan-themed baraat, Malvika Raj and Armaan Rai's love story prioritised playfulness throughout their blended celebrations.
Red pill, blue pill
India's nutraceutical industry is booming thanks to advanced technology, distrust of the medical system and rising vanity. With multivitamins becoming purer and more effective, NIDHI GUPTA finds out if supplements have become the new serum
Breathe in, Breathe out
A powerful tool to help you master your nervous system or another biohacking buzzword? SIMONE DHONDY explores the inhalations and exhalations of breathwork