Plans for Departure

by Nayantara Sahgal

For the eminent scientist Sir Nitin Basu, spending the summer of 1914 at a remote hill station in the Himalayas, the arrival of a single Danish woman – hired as his secretary by his sister didi – is as alarming as an invasion.

Tall, fair, unconventional Miss Anna Hansen is a feminist, a woman ahead of her times, enjoying a year of travel before her marriage to an English diplomat. Before her short stay in Himapur is over, she will have come dangerously close to loving another man, stumbled on the evidence, she believes, of a secret crime, and been shaken by a violet and mysterious death. Making up the small European community in Himapur are the missionary Marlowe Croft, a bullying, obsessive man determined at all costs to build a Christian church in the hills; his shrill, foolish wife Lulu, the chief obstacle to his mission; and the district Magistrate Henry Brewster, an enigmatic figure, ill-at-ease with the imperial authority he represents.

Deserted by his wife Stella, for whom ge gave up his dreams of a new political life in England, he is still consumed with love for her. Anna’s fascination with Brewster, her involvement in India’s growing political unrest, lead her to reconsider her future, but a horrific accident and a startling find in a forest glade make it impossible for her to stay. Tormented by unanswered questions, Anna makes her plans for departure, as the intimate tragedies of Himapur are swept away by the cataclysm of war. Plans for Departure is both a love story and mystery, set in a continent poised for revolution and a world on the edge of war. Nayantara Sahgal has a written a new novel of haunting power and superb craftsmanship, rich in intrigue, gentle humour and exquisite observation.

216 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1985

About the author

Nayantara Sahgal is an Indian writer in English. Her fiction deals with India's elite responding to the crises engendered by political change. She was one of the first female Indian writers in English to receive wide recognition. She is a member of the Nehru family (not the Nehru-Gandhi family as she so often points out), the second of the three daughters born to Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.
She was awarded the 1986 Sahitya Akademi Award for English, for her novel Rich Like Us (1985)awarded by India's National Academy of Letters.

Reviews

[Rajat Narula · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Danish girl visits India in Raj days and is fascinated by a British magistrate. A beautiful fast-paced first half, rather ruined by an over-dramatic second half. Written with wit, humor and style.

[Nitin Wasnik]

nil

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sahgal's writing verges on poetry, particularly in its descriptions of landscape and geography. For the main narrative voice of the text, Anna Hansen, the forests of India's hill country serve to shrink the world -- they remind her of the Alps to the point that she feels she's hardly left Europe -- even while they conceal the violent mystery around which the text revolves. Set at the outbreak of WWI, _Plans for Departure_ offers a unique perspective on the conflict. Hansen -- a Danish woman in India -- finds herself removed from the people who populate her world, as neither a citizen of the British Empire or an Indian national. The shifting narrative style allows the reader to experience a variety of different voices, all of which espouse very different perspectives on the burgeoning conflict taking place at such a geographical remove. I would have given this book five stars if not for the entirely unbelievable "love" story interwoven with the smart political commentary which spans women's rights, the impetus for imperial dominion, and whether there is justice to be had when power is racially delineated. Definitely worth a read.

[Lora · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I noted at the time, this book wasn't as good as "Mistaken Identity," which had a snappy ending.