Sleeping on Jupiter

Anuradha Roy

A train terminates at Jarmuli, a temple town by the sea. Here, among pilgrims, priests and ashrams, three old women from the train encounter a girl with wild hair and sloppy clothes. What is someone like her doing in this remote corner, which attracts only worshippers? Over the next few days, the women live out their dream of a holiday together; their temple guide finds ecstasy in forbidden love; and the girl is joined by a man battling his own demons. As their lives overlap and collide, unexpected connections are revealed between devotion and violence, friendship and fear, and Jarmuli emerges as a place with a long, dark past that transforms everyone who encounters it.