Opening in May 1948, after the independence of India, the novel is centred around Nainital, a city situated on the second mountain range after the Himalayas. Since it was chosen as a summer capital of the state of U.P. by the British Raj, people there had come into closer contact with it. On its termination, they remembered in various ways, as they had known it. While lawyers Pathak and Sunder, horse-wallah Mazid, all sighed for losing some income and importance in society, domestic helper suffered from nostalgia for the British Raj; Bhandari remembered it for the material culture it left behind; Godhan and snub-nosed priest expressed their esteem for the English language; Joga Shah recalled a British officer who had given him a start in life. Rajah Narendra Pratap, though still somewhat bitter against the British Raj, provided boarding and lodging to his English lady, private secretary Mrs. Scott, who loved peasants in his Rasalgaon zamindari. But the meaning of independence was often missed, as when Godhan remarked, "As our people, so our government has become fashionable. The above paragraph mentions some of the facts in the novel of the historical times, which broadly existed across India. But the conflict of the novel proceeds from the coming Hindu Code Bill passed by the Indian Parliament in 1952 and which it would always do, by conferring for the first time, two rights inheritance and divorce to Hindu women. The inheritance right disturbed the peace in the home of Sanwal who loved his nephew Desh as a son. But the right of divorce directly concerned to women, Lalita and Chandra, brought up in homes performing puja, kirtan and following Geeta, who passionately loved other than their husbands, Desh and Shanker. To Chandra seeking divorce in her times, when the freedom movement of women in India was unknown, looked as impossible; but none for Lalita, a firm believer of karma and nirvana. The action of the novel is set in the scenic mountainous part of the Uttaranchal state, formerly Uttar Pradesh (U.P.), where enchanting lakes, slaty fog, heeavy rains and snow seem to interact with the characters in the novel, which comprises about one hundred thousand words.
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