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That Year at Manikoil is part of a series named ‘Songs of Freedom’ launched by Duckbill Books in the year of India’s 75th year of Independence. It seeks to explore the lives of children across India during the struggle for Independence. What a welcome break! As a child, all one could lay hands on in the name of history were stories of national leaders and war heroes. The only children we read about were those that were part of the vanar sena of Allahabad, led by the child prodigy Indira Priyadarshini! And one often wondered: What were the children doing in those times? Did they go to school as usual? Were they scared with the volatile situation around? Did they climb trees to pluck mangoes and guavas as we often did?

That Year at Manikoil is set in Madras of 1944. It opens with the stress and trauma our protagonist—Raji—goes through under the shadow of her two extraordinarily brilliant sisters who excelled in studies, particularly Mathematics. It rings a familiar bell in my mind, having grown up under the shadow of a multi-talented elder sister!