Rumki Chowdhury
17-year-old Asha's life of tranquility is hindered when she loses her parents in a tragic accident. She believes that her new guardian is her caretaker until her tyrannical aunt and cousin move in with her. Asha only begins to adapt to her new family when she is accused of a crime she did not commit. Hereafter, Asha slowly transforms into someone she no longer recognizes. Will she ever find herself again?
Rumki Chowdhury has her BA in English from William Paterson University of New Jersey. She was an Editorial Assistant at Pearson Higher Education for a few months. Fall of 2008, she will be studying for her MA degree in English Literature at Queen Mary College of the University of London. Her past experience with writing and literature is as follows: Adults Editorial Intern at Simon and Schuster, Inc.; Editor-in-chief of Sense South Asia Online Magazine; Editor-in-chief of The Beacon Newspaper; Minorities Workshop member at The Record Newspaper; and Intern at The Herald News, the paper in which her article, "The Significance of Henna Artistry," was published.
Behind the black background of her eyes, vicious images flashed, scenarios of what her parents’ last few moments might have been like. In the violence of the wind and the thunderstorm, the horse carriage, which Asha’s Baba and Ma rode, was forced to collapse into the lake's water. Their bazaar of fruits and vegetables flew through the air, breaking the confused pattern of falling raindrops, eventually penetrating through the lake’s surface only to rise afloat. The carriage driver, Joldi, survived because he landed on the muddy ground. Her Baba and Ma were thrown into the aggressive waters and neither of them knew how to swim. Joldi, helpless because he also did not know how to swim, ran to the house as fast as he could to get help. It was too late. In her mind, she could hear cries for help forced to fade below water and four arms sinking into nothingness.
Their chests ached with severity until their hearts ceased to pump and lungs entirely filled with water.
