Chapter 16 Letters in the Dust

The children began writing more than alphabets. They started leaving letters behind-on walls, on stones, on the very dust of Padmapur's winding lanes. Small chalk symbols of hope, resistance, dreams.

"Shakti," wrote one.

"Azadi," scribbled another with uncertain hands.

One letter caught Arinay's eye-it was nailed to the banyan's trunk. The handw