On 20 September, when the children begin eating, there is no indication of anything untoward in the offing. They sit at a small table, wearing large bibs, while their respective ayahs hand-feed them mouthfuls of roti soaked in bright yellow panchmel dal. Varsha’s caregiver is bringing one last morsel towards the child’s lips when, instead of obligingly opening her mouth, Varsha slaps her hand away, splattering the floor with marigold-hued lumps of food.

Then, in a loud, clear voice she declares, in Hindi, ‘I want rice and fish. Give me some fish.’ A moment later, as if to underline the urgency of her demand, she says, in Bengali, ‘Ami machh-bhat khabo. Machh dao.’

This is greeted as a joke by the ayahs, who titter mildly as they clean up the mess on the floor. ‘All right,’ says one of them, humouring the child. ‘Tomorrow we’ll give you a big, big fish to play with. But only if you eat your food quietly now, like a good girl.’

This has no effect: the next piece of roti and dal that is brought to Varsha’s mouth meets the same fate as the one before. The child strikes her ayah’s hand away from her face and cries out, ‘I want fish now! I don’t want rotis and dal.’

Her shocked caregiver stares at her uncomprehendingly. ‘We can’t give you fish, Varsha beti. You know that. There’s no fish in this house.’

‘Then I won’t eat anything!’ screams the normally even-tempered three-year-old. ‘I won’t eat anything at all until you give me some rice and fish.’ Varsha’s eyes are blazing, not with frustration or peevishness, which would not have been untoward in a child of her age, but with an anger that seems almost adult in its intensity.

By this time the sound of the child’s voice has reached the kitchen, bringing several other members of the household staff into the room. On hearing the outlandish demand repeated again and again, they understand that Varsha is, in some sense, serious. But how could this be? The child has never been near a fish, let alone tasted one.

Maybe she had a dream, someone suggests.

Or perhaps she wants a toy that looks like a fish?

These speculations are put to rest by the child, who says, ‘No! I want to eat fish. Why do you never feed me any fish and rice?’

(Excerpted with permission from Ghost-Eye by Amitav Ghosh, published by HarperCollins; 2025)