Once those died away, men were seen to detach themselves from the hillside on which they had been crouching, their hair and clothes cloaked in white dust that made them look like ghostly figures in a photographic negative. With pickaxes and shovels, they began to dig, hammer and excavate.
Shalini turned away, closing her eyes to the grit and dust, and Chand doubled over, coughing, but Bhatia was triumphant. ‘That is what we need for a finish!’ he shouted. ‘Get the camera, let’s shoot!’
A line of trucks went rumbling down a newly made track into the gully, and the ghost men below began to load them for the journey down to the plains.
A Note on the Author
Anita Desai was born and educated in India. Her published works include many award-winning short-story collections and novels, three of which have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, most recently Fasting, Feasting. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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Copyright © Anita Desai 2017, 2011, 2007, 2000, 1978
This selection of stories and preface © Anita Desai 2017
Anita Desai has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus in 2017
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library