Rowaena28
Bombay, 1930s.
Arthur Edward Spencer was born into everything Surya Kamble could never have.
The son of a powerful British general, Arthur has been raised to believe in the Empire-and in the superiority it demands. Cold, disciplined, and fiercely loyal to his family, he has little patience for the Indians he considers beneath him.
Surya Kamble knows exactly what it means to be considered beneath someone.
Born into poverty and a community crushed beneath the weight of caste, Surya has learned to survive a world that has never given him a fair chance. He keeps his head down, works hard, and refuses to let cruelty completely destroy the fire inside him.
Then their paths cross.
They should have remained strangers.
A British soldier's son and an Indian boy from a world Arthur has been taught to despise.
But hatred begins to blur into curiosity. Curiosity becomes understanding. And understanding becomes something neither of them is prepared to name.
Because in a city divided by empire, caste, and prejudice, there are some distances that cannot simply be crossed.
Arthur and Surya may walk beneath the same sky.
They were never strangers.
They were simply born on opposite sides of a line neither of them drew.
And some lines are never meant to be crossed.
They may stand beneath the same horizon.
But like parallel lines, they were never meant to meet.