Publisher's Synopsis
A mother's remorse, compelled to give up her child for adoption, is matched by an equally intense urge. Of the child to find her biological parents. Veronica Greenberg, born to Payal and Ali, adopted by a childless Jewish couple in the USA, excels in academics, especially music. Her adoptive parents, victims of WWII, embrace counterculture in response to the insanity of war.
Our story begins in 1975 on the sands of a dried riverbed; a small violent town of Western Rajasthan, India. 2 depressed souls, in night's darkness, Payal and Ali, find each other through enchanting notes of Indian ragas. One a victim of the genocide in erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, forced to become a Muslim cleric, and another a seventeen-year-old, forced into marriage with septuagenarian Deendayal.
Unable to find pregnant Payal's amour, enraged Deendayal sticks a rape charge at an innocent bank loan officer hoping to ferret the identity. The trial forces Payal to admit adultery in court, but not with the accused.
Payal and Ali escape, through unforgiving Thar desert. They wed at the venerated Dargah Sharif. Payal becomes Meher- Un- Nissa. Then to Kolkata's slums, robbed of the little money they had. Payal coerced to lose her child to adoption, does not forgive Ali. Eventually, their relationship frays. Abandoned Meher-Un-Nissa, finds solace through years of rigorous training in Indian Classical Music reaching international fame.
Meanwhile, Veronica, unrequited in love, abandoned, with a child, travels the world as part of her work with international music, momentarily crossing paths with a renowned Meher -Un -Nissa in London, unaware of their bond.
Veronica and her daughter visit Kolkata to find her own blood. Stonewalled at the adoption office, a chance note stuck to her file gives a vague clue. She has just 3 days to uncover her origins.
