The Sleeping Dictionary (71 page)

“My heart is healed,” I said, running my hand along the edge of Simon’s
jaw and bringing it to his lips. “And you know that India will always be inside it, along with you and Kabita.”

Simon kissed my hand. We looked at each other for a long moment, full of everything that had happened—and what would come. Then gradually, I became aware of car horns bleating in exultation. I heard the cheering, and singing voices, and even Kabita’s high-pitched, merry laugh. Without saying anything more, Simon and I linked hands and walked out of the garden, toward the celebration.

A TASTE OF OLD

CALCUTTA

PERFECT RICE (BHATT)

Serves 6 with leftovers

2 cups basmati rice, white or brown, soaked at least 20 minutes (for white rice) or 2 hours (for brown)

3 cups water or low-sodium chicken stock (for white rice; use 4 cups for brown)

1 cinnamon stick

2 cloves

2 green cardamom pods

¹
/
₄
cup chopped onion

1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil

Rinse the soaked rice (once for white rice, 4 times for brown) to remove extra starch.

In a medium-size pot, add 1 tablespoon of oil and bring to medium heat. Add spices and, after a minute, the onion and drained rice. Sauté about 2 minutes and then add the stock.

Raise heat slightly to bring to a boil. When it boils, lower heat to a simmer and put the lid on the rice.

Cook rice until the water is almost gone (15–20 minutes for white basmati rice, about 45 minutes for brown).

Turn off range and let rice sit covered for 10–20 minutes to continue steam cooking. Then fluff with a fork and serve. Bengalis consider rice well cooked if the grains appear to be standing upright.

MUSTARD SHRIMP (CHINGRI BHAPEY)

Serves 6 as part of a larger meal

1.5 pounds raw shrimp, shelled and deveined

3 tablespoons brown mustard seeds

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

2 green chilies, seeded

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

¹
/
₄
cup coarse salt

Marinate shrimp in coarse salt for 10 minutes, then rinse.

Grind the mustard and poppy seeds and chilies in a spice or clean coffee grinder.

Mix the shrimp into this paste and put in a stainless-steel bowl. Cover tightly with foil.

Choose a stockpot large enough to contain the bowl. Add enough boiling water to the stockpot so that it will come a third of the way up the foil-covered bowl. Cover the stockpot and put on medium heat for a low boil. Cook the shrimp about 10–15 minutes total, then carefully (to avoid burning yourself!) lift the foil midway (turning off the stove temporarily) so you can stir the shrimp once.

Shrimp are ready when they are tender and the flesh is white. Serve with rice, dal, and a vegetable curry.

INDEPENDENCE TRIFLE

Serves 10

Approximately 18 double ladyfinger cakes, fresh or dried

1 pint of custard, made with Bird’s Custard Powder or from scratch (store-bought vanilla pudding may be used as well)

Two 30-oz (850 g) cans of Alphonso Mangoes, drained (or 4 cups of fresh, ripe sweet mango slices)

1 pint heavy cream, whipped with 2 tablespoons of sugar

Apricot jam or orange marmalade

1 cup unsalted pistachios, shelled and roughly chopped

Reserve 1 cup of the whipped cream to use for topping. Mix the remainder of cream with the custard.

Cover the bottom of a glass bowl with ladyfinger halves, curved side down. Spread a little mixed apricot jam/orange marmalade on top of the ladyfingers. Lay enough mango slices to cover.

Top with half the custard-cream mixture and sprinkle with
¹
/
₃
cup of pistachios.

Repeat another ladyfinger, jam/marmalade, mango, and custard layer, sprinkle with
¹
/
₃
cup of pistachios.

Add remaining fruit and top with whipped cream and sprinkle with remaining pistachios.

GALLERY READERS GROUP GUIDE

THE SLEEPING DICTIONARY

Sujata Massey

Introduction

When a tidal wave wipes out a tiny village on Bengal’s southwest coast, a young girl known as Pom is set adrift in the world. Found near death by a charitable British headmistress and her chauffeur, Abbas, Pom is christened Sarah and becomes a servant at the Lockwood School for British and upper-caste Indian girls. When Bidushi Mukherjee, whose family owned Sarah’s home village, arrives at the school, Sarah believes she’s found a true friend. Bidushi is engaged to a handsome young lawyer, Pankaj Bandophadhyay, and the two girls dream that Sarah will become Bidushi’s personal ayah after Bidushi marries. Sadly, Bidushi succumbs to malaria, and Sarah is accused of theft and runs away. With the help of Abbas, she makes it to the larger town of Kharagpur, where she hopes to work as a children’s teacher, but her lack of qualifications make this impossible. A glamorous Anglo-Indian woman, Bonnie, invites her to luxurious Rose Villa, where she is renamed Pamela and inadvertently falls into a life of prostitution. Rose Villa caters to British railway men and military officers, and Pamela’s unhappy experiences there spark her interest in the burgeoning freedom movement. Secretly, she plots to save enough to leave Rose Villa for Calcutta, where she hopes to study for a teaching certificate.

Her hopes are dashed yet again, this time by an unwanted pregnancy. Believing it’s the best thing she can do for herself and her newborn daughter, Kabita, she leaves the baby in the care of Abbas and his wife and sets off for Calcutta, hoping to find respectable work. By a stroke of luck, she becomes the librarian and house manager for Simon Lewes, a young British Indian Civil Service officer who has a massive collection of books on India. She tells him her name is Kamala Mukherjee and allows him to believe she is well-born and well-educated. With her new freedom-fighting friends, Kamala reconnects with Pankaj Bandopadhyay, although he does not remember her as the servant girl from
Lockwood. At his urging, she spies on Mr. Lewes’s work and finds that he’s tracking Indian revolutionaries. As they work together, she wonders if he could ever look past the unknowns about her and become her husband. However, as time goes on, Simon becomes more sympathetic to Indian independence, falls in love with Kamala, and convinces her to marry him. And, while their relationship is tested by the stresses of World War II, the reappearance of Kamala’s daughter, Kabita, and the truth of Kamala’s difficult past, their love for each other and for India carries them through.

Discussion Questions

1. After losing her family, Kamala goes through several identities—from Pom to Sarah, Pamela, and finally Kamala. Can any of them be said to be more “real” or “true” than the others?

2. Kamala’s life is strongly shaped by loss: her family, Bidushi, even Abbas, the Lockwood School’s chauffeur. How do these deaths shape the course of her life? How effectively does she deal with these losses?