IN SEARCH OF BASANT: A Letter to Amelie & Irya

Description

In Search of Basant is a daughter’s intense desire to reconnect with her father, to reconcile her long buried feelings about him. It is an exhilarating journey of turmoil, change, and hope, spanning more than 200 years. Through her father’s carefully preserved correspondence, journals, postcards from a colonial era, portraits in both words and images, rare newspaper clippings from World War II, the Partition of India, and the Independence movement, etc. – woven into a vibrant tapestry of poignant photographs and moving narratives – Shobha Shroff tells a tale of India, the Marwari community, the Shroff family, and the timeless story of humanity itself, always at the crossroads of the past, present, and the future. The book germinates from France. However, the story begins from a village in the deserts of Rajasthan, India, journeys across Europe, America, and witnesses the end of the British Empire. It is about the elusive connection of self with others that makes life meaningful, of letting go of the pain and unanswered questions, holding on to the good with its tragic, comic, poignant moments. It is a gift of their precious heritage to the seventh-generation daughters of the family Amelie, an American and Irya, an Indian.