The Why-Why Girl
Narrated by an older woman, the story is about ten-year-old Moyna, a young girl who loves to ask questions about anything and everything. Moyna and her family are Shabars, a poor tribe, and have to work for a wealthy landlord. Moyna is full of questions about why she has to do certain jobs and why she cannot go to school.
When she comes to stay with the narrator, she asks why the narrator reads books. The narrator tells Moyna that all the answers to her questions are in books, so Moyna decides to learn to read.
When she is 18, she becomes a teacher at the local school and encourages her students to ask questions.
Giribala
Giri is married to Aulchand, a n’er-do-well young man. Her father pays the bride-price and gives Aulchand bamboo that he says is for building the couple a house, but this is a lie and he squanders it. Giri knows that women live lives of suffering, and is resigned to her fate.
Giri and Aulchand have four children, three of whom are girls. Giri gets herself sterilized after the fourth child, which angers Aulchand. Giri delights especially in her firstborn, Bela, and hopes to find her a good husband. But when Giri is visiting her parents, Aulchand conspires with his unscrupulous friend Mohan to sell Giri to a man from Bihar for a high bride-price.
Giri is devastated and cannot forgive Aulchand. She tries to protect her second daughter, Pori, but Mohan tricks them and Pori ends up being sold as well. Aulchand is upset at first, but gets over it because he only cares about money and wishes they had more daughters so he could sell all of them off.
Giri knows the only thing she can do is leave, so she takes her son and youngest daughter and departs. She leaves a note saying if Aulchand follows her, she will kill herself. The villagers lambast Giri for leaving her husband, but she does not care—she wishes she had done it sooner.
Bayen
Bhagirath is the son of Chandi, a woman who has been declared a “bayen,” or a witch, by the villagers and her husband. He is curious about his mother, as bayens are said to be evil and dangerous. His father, Malindar, tells him the story of what happened: He and Chandi are Doms, the caste that works in the burial grounds. They fell in love, married, and had Bhagirath. Chandi’s job was to tend the graves and cover them so jackals would not take the bodies. Over time she became more and more distressed about children dying, and wished she could quit even though it was her duty. She began to behave strangely and some of the villagers started to look upon her with suspicion. Eventually she left her job and the Doms were angry with her. One night they came to the house and declared her a bayen, and Malindar joined with them in declaring it so. Chandi was forced to live in a shed beyond the pond, completely isolated from the rest of the community.
Bhagirath is intrigued by this story and visits her, but she orders him away. She worries about him under Malindar’s care if he was able to come see her. She decides to do something about this, but on her way that evening she comes across robbers putting debris across the train tracks so they could derail it and steal the goods. When she confronts them, they see she is the bayen and run away. She tries to clear the debris but cannot. She screams and warns the train to stop, but is killed. The government decides she is a hero and honors her with a metal. Bhagirath tearfully accepts and tells everyone his mother was not a bayen. The Doms look on in silence.
Draupadi
Dopdi Mehjen and her husband, Dulna Mehjen, are rebels trying to bring down corrupt landowners. As the story begins, Dulna is dead and Dopdi is the object of a feverish search by military police.
Dopdi is heading back to the encampment of the rebels when she hears someone call her name. She is wary, and tries to lead them away. She is then captured by police and taken to Senanayak, an officer with a long history of routing out rebels. He tells his men to rape her, which they do repeatedly.
Dopdi is provided clothes and ordered before Senanayak, but she refuses to put on the clothes. She comes before Senanayak completely naked and refusing to be cowed. She laughs maniacally and pushes herself against Senanayak. It is the only time he has ever been afraid of an enemy.
Breast-Giver
Jashoda and her husband, Kangali, work for the wealthy babu, Mr. Haldar. She is known for her magnificent breasts and how much milk she produces. One of the babu’s sons injures Kangali with a car and Haldar feels terribly, so he gives Kangali a spot on his land to run a store. Kangali also takes up a post at Shiva’s temple. After Haldar dies, Jashoda decides to ask his wife if there is a position for her, perhaps in the kitchen. Instead, she becomes a wet nurse to the household, a position she occupies for thirty years. She herself is pregnant twenty times in order to supply the milk. During these decades she is highly regarded by the household and the village.
After Mrs. Haldar dies, though, the daughters-in-law, who are more modern and do not want to get pregnant and be bound to the home, no longer need Jashoda. She sees her value completely eroded, and by then, her marriage has also collapsed.
Jashoda develops painful breast cancer and does not have it discovered and treated until it is too late. She dies in the hospital with no one at her side.
