The Burden Of Foreknowledge
JAWAHARA SAIDULLAH
The story explores the journey of Nadee, the heroine, as she is swept away from her devastated village, Zameerpur, to Kashi and eventually Fatehpur Sikri.
Hardback | 140 x 216mm (5.5 x 8.5") | 188 pp
ISBN 8186939318
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In sixteenth century India, when Nadee is swept away by the raging Yamuna, her life itself becomes a journey. A journey that takes her from her devastated village to the burning ghats of Kashi, then to Agra and finally to Fatehpur Sikri. Even as her life intertwines with history, barriers between the future and the past, the dead and the living break down until they become indistinguishable. She is doomed to love Kashi’s unattainable King of the Dead, the Dom Raja; to serve the legendary courtesan, Chhapan Choori; and then the almost mythical emperor, Akbar. When her newborn son, the legacy of her love, disappears, she slides further into madness and despair as she searches desperately for her a single link to herself. Nadee is blindingly aware of her destiny, though she remains powerless to change it. The Burden of Foreknowledge is a story that traces an unusual life, brushing greatness but as the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, the story reaches its climactic conclusion in the abandoned and desolate city of dreams, when Nadee finally achieves what has been predestined.
About the author
Jawhara Saidullah was born and brought up in the hot, dusty plains of Uttar Pradesh and credits her love of writing to the too-frequent power cuts and no television. With a Master’s degree in communications, Jawahara currently works as a computer book editor. Her work has appeared in several publications, including the recent Seal Press anthology, Voices of Resistance. She was a weekly columnist for Mid-Day in Mumbai and is a regular columnist for www.chowk.com. Jawahara divides her time between Boston and Geneva.
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