The Storyteller's Secret

Jaya remembers her first miscarriage. Patrick supported her, but his reaction was to have faith in fate. Their different approaches to coping contributed to the growing emotional distance between them. Jaya compares her experience of adult womanhood to that of her grandmother’s, marveling in the multitude of choices she has had the freedom to pursue: “For the woman she was, I think of the woman I’m not” (276).

The Ashram, the local orphanage, is full to capacity, lacks running water, and is poorly funded; Jaya is horrified by the “stench of urine and feces” (277) she encounters inside. There are only two caregivers inside the Ashram, and many of the children have been abandoned for having cognitive or physical disabilities.

After the orphanage, Ravi arranges a guided tour of Madhya Pradesh, the “waterfall towns,” so that Jaya may experience the natural beauty of the area. Their guide is a young woman named Mona, who got a business degree at the University of Chicago and returned to India to start a guided tour business. Mona explains that India is “a country that’s trying to keep up with the westernized world [...] a country of opportunity” (282).