Daughters: A Story of Five Generations (

A chronicle of the lives of five generations of women in the author's family this fascinating story spans over a hundred years in its narrative sweep from the late nineteenth century to the early years of the twenty-first. It mirrors and critiques the progress of a nation its society and its women seamlessly blending biography with social history. Sundar-ma Bharati Ray's great-grandmother was married into a conservative household at twelve. Self-educated because formal education was out of her reach she was an intelligent deeply thoughtful woman who witnessed some of the most tumultuous times in India's history and actively participated in India's freedom struggle. Ushabala the author's grandmother was the proud wife of a college lecturer and a consummate home-maker while Kalyani Bharati Ray's Ma was the first woman in the family to get a college degree but gave up her studies and a career to raise her children. Ma is lovingly described as feisty and irrepressible a keen traveller and always ready for adventure. Kalyani's academic successes heralded the author's own remarkable achievements first as lecturer in Calcutta University then as its first woman pro-vice-chancellor and later as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha. Bharati Ray's daughters Khuku and Tista both extremely bright lead busy fulfilling lives as academics.