Chapter 2: Plant response to elevated CO2 - DRUM - University of ...

the far corner of the room and twilight glowed from the wall adjoining the
entrance. A rectangular depression made in the wall held a few pairs of neatly
folded bright cotton clothes, two aluminum drinking cups, two plates, some jars
which probably contained sugar, tea and salt, a wooden box of spices and a
cracked round mirror with a tattered leather case and some books. A small
earthern pot for water and much used, misshapen aluminium plates lay in a
corner. Megha noted all this down in her notebook for the project report of her
visit that she would have to prepare once she reached office. She wondered in
such little possessions where Durga’s trosseau was.
The lantern that Durga’s father had lit cast a flickering, pale circle of light
around, turning familiar objects foreign, so that the cup and pot loomed into
oversized, shadowy shapes; the little objects of the room magnified into huge
versions of themselves. The room seemed to be caught in a dance of shadows
and light. In the dancing flame everything remained stationary for awhile then
suddenly, with the slightest flicker, change into another pattern, another
kaleidoscopic instant.
Feeling as if she were wearing a dusty brown mask on her face, Megha
asked, “Can I get some water?”
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