Pink Balcony Silver Moon (ePub)

Andrew's mother loses her battle against cancer. He, growing up disillusioned and heartbroken at the loss of his mother's love and guidance and with a widening gap between him and his disgruntled father, choses to study in a boarding school. Upon graduation, he takes a job as an English professor at the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island.

Andrew is unhappy and feels an emptiness within him that begins to gnaw at his soul. One day at a precipitous moment he resigns from his job. He is determined to find answers to questions that have been swirling in his head. Twenty springs have passed since Andrew was forced to leave Manali in a hurry, a destination resort town in the foothills of Himalayas and now at the age of thirty-five, he is one more time Manali-bound.

In Manali he will be searching for a girl called Lalita he once fell in love with when he was still a young boy. What bothered his father the most was that she belonged to an Untouchable family that had no position in Indian society. As a result his father and his father's friends abruptly quashed Andrew's friendship and drove Lalita's family out of Manali. Violence was suspected in driving Lalita away.

Upon his return to Manali he tries hard but no one seems to know the whereabouts of Lalita. As time passes he finds a group of new friends including a beautiful girl called Jyoti who is engaged in a struggle to fight for the rights of the Untouchable class of India. Jyoti and her friends are young and idealistic and convince Andrew to support their cause to fight oppression against the untouchable class.

He develops a close friendship with Jyoti and then an extraordinary event changes his life. Unbeknown to Andrew, in this little town there is a big surprise waiting for him. His past with the girl he loved was about to come back with a stinging surprise. The truth rocks him to his very core and he vows to seek justice. Justice for Lalita, her family and the Untouchables!

The more he gets involved, the more he complicates his friends' lives. His continuing probing into Lalita's past is of concern to some influential people in the town and they are determined to put an end to it. Now everyone in the group is vulnerable. As one by one Andrew's friends begin to fall prey to the oppressors, he is compelled to take the fight to the thugs.

He is unable to decipher the signals he is getting from Jyoti. When finally the truth is revealed about Andrew and Jyoti, she begins to hate him and wants nothing to do with him anymore. Distraught and confused he plunges himself irrationally into the riskiest solution of once and for all exposing the culprits responsible for Lalita's sad fate in order to bring justice to her and her family and hopefully find peace in his soul. Then something extraordinary happens.

To Andrew's amazement his father suddenly appears unannounced in Manali. For the first time in his life Andrew's father opens his heart and reveals the truth to both Andrew and Jyoti. She is furious and wants nothing to do with Andrew or his father. But Andrew's father discloses the real purpose of his return to Manali and presents a plan to apprehend the people who were responsible for the violence towards Lalita. The plan is full of flaws but the persuasive nature of Andrew's father prevails. Together they all walk into a death trap.

Will they all perish due to their flawed plan? Will Lalita's family ever get justice for what happened to Lalita? Will Jyoti meet the same fate as Lalita did twenty years ago? Does Andrew's father have an alternative plan that he will not share with his son? Answers to these questions are revealed by what Andrew does next.