Natural Elements

"My name is Geeta. I was born in Vile Parle, a suburb of Bombay." So begins the story of Geeta, a young woman home for the holidays from boarding school. Nothing exciting ever seems to happen in her life. If she's not at the New Age Cafe with friends and fellow students Lalita and Ganesh she's at the cinema swooning over the latest Bollywood idols. Life is simple and ordinary on the surface, but underneath lays a darkness that unsettles the balance of her life. Being a young woman of mixed race (her mother is black) in a society where fair skin is prized (even though more than half the population is dark-skinned) Geeta often feels isolated although she has the love and support of her mother which helps her during rough times. But her mother has a secret that will change her life. A secret that once revealed informs the heroine of her mother's long ago affair and of a sister she has never known.