“Tonight this section of the city was suffering one of its regular power failures, so the drumming of dozens of generators competed with the traffic. Headlights swept rhythmically over the dim-lit frontages of shops and cafés.Mair’s shikara slid towards the houseboat through a thick tangle of stiff lotus-flower heads that poked up like fists out of the black water. It had been a long and chilly trip up the lake from the Shalimar Garden and she pushed aside the musty blanket with relief as she pr...epared to disembark.The boatman paddled to the steps at the lakeside. Solomon and Sheba listed noticeably and the timbers of the old structure were unpainted and splintery, but even so it was in a better condition than many of its neighbours. Some of them – still inhabited – had decayed to the point at which they were little more than loose bundles of planking and lopsided poles festooned with tattered curtains.Farooq, the baroquely obstructive manager of the houseboat, appeared in the veranda doorway and helped her aboard.MoreLessRead More Read Less
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