The Glass Palace

Bela waits for news from Rangoon but it’s difficult to come by. Uma is imprisoned as part of India’s independence movement but is allowed to return home after contracting typhoid. In the throes of a famine, Bengal is filled with destitute people. When two elderly people with a baby come to Uma’s home, she sends Bela to check on them. Rajkumar, Dolly, and baby Jaya have finally arrived.

Arjun, Hardy, and other Indian soldiers join the second incarnation of the Indian National Army. Though the British view them as traitors, the Indian populace consider them heroes. Riots accompany any British attempts to prosecute Indian National Army members. Hardy becomes a national figure and he brings news that Arjun died fighting in the final days of the war, as had Kishan Singh.

Rajkumar and Dolly stay with Uma for six years, taking small jobs. When Burma wins independence in 1948, Dolly decides that they should return and leave the baby with Uma and Bela; no one has heard from Dinu in seven years. But Rajkumar stays behind, having grown too attached to the baby. Dolly secretly departs, leaving a note for her husband. Rajkumar never sees her again.