Across The River
Seema Choudhry and Madhu Gupta, one Muslim, the other a Hindu, are
the best of friends. Both live in Old Delhi, only a few dense, narrow lanes
apart, but in worlds that rarely meet. And yet, the worlds are very similar
in the demands they make of women, especially young women like Seema
and Madhu-they should settle down soon after puberty, married to men
of the same faith, caste and class, chosen by their elders. But in the early
years of the twenty-first century, change is creeping in. When the two girls
find employment in a factory in Noida, across the Yamuna, their worlds
expand-a little at first, and then radically. Their lives will be transformed in
unexpected ways by ambition and, in Seema's case, by the love of the other-
the son of her bigoted Hindu employer.
Written in effortless, clear-as-glass prose, Across the River is a hugely engaging
exploration of the tension between tradition and modernity, and an equally
sensitive examination of both the rigidity and the fragility of religious
prejudice.
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