description: The renowned author Bapsi Sidhwa and the equally renowned filmmaker Deepa Mehta share a unique artistic Mehta adapted Sidhwaâ€s novel Cracking India for her brilliant film Earth, and here, Sidhwa adapts Mehtaâ€s controversial film Water to the printed page.Set in 1938, against the backdrop of Gandhiâ€s rise to power, Water follows the life of eight-year-old Chuyia, abandoned at a widowâ€s ashram after the death of her elderly husband. There, she must live in penitence until her death. Unwilling to accept her fate, she becomes a catalyst for change in the widowsâ€s lives. When her friend Kalyani, a beautiful widow-prostitute, falls in love with a young, upper-class Gandhian idealist, the forbidden affair boldly defies Hindu tradition and threatens to undermine the ashramâ€s delicate balance of power. This riveting look at the lives of widows in colonial India is ultimately a haunting and lyrical story of love, faith, and redemption.
language: English
title: Water
titlecomplete: Water
genres: Fiction, Cultural, Indian Literature, Asia, Drama, India, Literature, Novels, Contemporary, Historical Fiction
ratings_count: 1250
publisher: Penguin Books