The Lady on the Horse and Other Secrets

Spanning over a century, The Lady on the Horse tells the story of five generations of a family in Calcutta. Starting life as a khansama in an Englishman’s house in 1900, Dipendra Nath Lahiri dreams of acquiring the wealth and status of a zamindar. His wife Pritilata’s skills as a seamstress—much sought after by the memsahibs— become the means, and by 1919, their tailoring business, Lahiri & Sons, has made them fabulously rich and they’ve bought a grand mansion, Lahiri Bari. Their progeny can live a life of leisure, at par with the white sahibs Dipendra Nath and Pritilata had once served.