Chapter 1 - Epidemic

1896, Bhagur, Nashik tehsil, Bombay Presidency 

Thirteen-year-old Tatyarao had been at the window all afternoon. Now as twilight fell, he showed no signs of moving from his perch. 

The screams from the opposite house grew louder and louder with each hour, and the falling darkness increased his dread. The lamplighter had stopped coming two days ago; he had been stricken by the plague too. Tatya shivered.

Annarao, his father, had brought him back from Nasik. It was just three hours by horse-cart.

 “I do not feel you are safe anymore in Nasik with the spreading plague,” his father had exhorted him and Babarao, his older brother. He had also sent for their sister, Maina, to join them, as her town an hour away by horse-cart was also stricken with the plague. His youngest, six-year-old Bal, would be delighted with everyone back home. 

Tatya was only too happy to come back home. While his father had sent him away to Nasik to go to the most prestigious school there, he had been sorely disappointed…