Derelict

Derelict is the fascinating story of Sudhir Sebastian Rosario, a "native" Christian who was born in the village of Kanakpur, Noakhali but who goes to High School in Pahartali, where his father works for the Bengal Assam Railway. Treated affectionately by his father's scholarly “Anglo-Indian” boss. Mr. Fernandes, he falls in love with his daughter Dora. Set against the backdrop of the crumbling of the British Indian Empire and the upheavals of the Second World War, this is a tragic story of a failed romance. The novel portrays vividly the life of Bengali Catholics in rural Bangladesh, the life of Eurasians in Chittagong, and the emotional devastation faced by these communities in the wake of the partition of India. As Sudhir remarks ruefully, "Empire has crumbled and my community has been left behind as flotsam." Derelict forms compelling reading not only as an aborted love story but also because of the glimpses it provides of empire's children.