By Eastern Windows (Macquarie, #1)

by Gretta Curran Browne

The arrival of the monsoon was a time for celebration, for the rains meant more to India than a banishment of the annual dread of drought and famine. It was a time when man sat back and looked at the glistening beauty of the earth. A time for both the land and man’s refreshment after the leaden apathy of the heat. A time for nourishment of the spirit in the exhilarating cool winds that came with the rain. A time when all felt younger, healthier, stronger; reborn. The monsoon was also the time for love, for steamy and smouldering passion, when all India believed that earth and rain joined in a kind of lovemaking, uniting and procreating, and during the monsoon season there truly was a soft and vibrant sensuousness in the Indian air.

its people were good if not always its government, and at the end of a day and a life, friendship was more valuable than gold. FIFTEEN India, at last.