A REVIEW OF

FACES IN THE WATER

BY
THE SUSCEPTIBLES
SUBGROUP: 1
(CLASS: X SECTION: D)
SUBMITTED TO:
TR. SASANK KUMAR PRADHAN
A PROJECT PREPARED FOR THE PARTIAL
FULFILLMENT OF FA-1( ENGLISH )
1

D.A.V PUBLIC SCHOOL, POKHARIPUT

LIST OF GROUP
MEMBERS

PRATYASHA PRIYADARSHINI
ASHUTOSH SITHA
ANIL SAHOO
SUBHRANCHAL SWAIN
SHEIKH SHOAIB AKHTAR
ASHUTOSH MAHAPATRA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

WE, THE SUSCEPTIBLES

ACKNOWLEDGE THE HELP FROM
OUR ENGLISH TEACHER SASANK
KUMAR PRADHAN SIR FOR THE
SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF OUR
PROJECT. WE ALSO THANK OUR
PARENTS FOR THE HELP RENDERED
IN THE OUTBRINGING OF THIS
PROJECT. LASTLY WE DECLARE THAT
WE HAVE NOT RESOTED TO
PLAGIARISM FROM ANY OTHER
SOURCE.

CONTENTS
SL NO.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

TOPIC
FIRST PAGE
GROUPMEMBERS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
CONTENTS
GENERAL INFO.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
THEME
SUMMARY
CHARACTERS
SETTING
CONFLICT & RESOLUTION
OUR VIEWS ON THE BOOK
RATING
THANK YOU

SLIDE NO.
1
2
3
4
5
6-7
8-9
10-12
13-14
15-16
17-19
20-21
22
23

TITLE :
GENERAL
INFORMATION
GENRE :

AUTHOR :
PUBLISHER :
YEAR OF EDITION :
PRICE :
PAGES :
FACES IN THE WATER
YOUNG AD ULT FICTION
5

RANJIT LAL
PUFFIN
2010
RS. 250

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ranjit Lal was born in Kolkata in 1955, and was

educated in Mumbai, from where he graduated in
Economics and Sociology. As a freelance writer and
journalist, he has written over 1,000 articles, short
stories, features and photo-features that have been
published in over 50 newspapers and magazines in
India & abroad. He has special interest in areas
like natural history, photography, humour, satire
and automobiles, on which he has written for both
young-adults and children. He is one of the few
Indian journalists to write satire and humour on a
regular basis.

He has authored several books including The

Crow Chronicles, The Life and Times of Altu
Faltu, That Summer at Kalagarh, The Bossman
Adventures, Enjoying Birds, Birds of Delhi,
Birds from My Window, The Caterpillar Who
Went on a Diet and Other Stories, When
Banshee Kissed Bimbo & The Battle for No.19.
Ranjit Lal is currently based in Delhi.
7

THEME

Faces in water is an interesting, adventurous and

fascinating story that speaks about the female
infanticide. The author has dealt with this sensitive
issue in a very humorous and gentle manner that
makes the book very interesting. The author has
taken up the story of a heinous crime that has
been existent in Indian society which sadly refuses
to acknowledge it.
Gurmeet, is a fifteen year old boy who comes from
the city to live in his ancestral home where he was
born, during the vacation. In spite of frequent
warnings from his mother to stay away from the
magical well, which supplied water to the house,
Gurmeet picks up his cycle and goes there.

What he discovers there changes his life and that

of others for ever. There he discovers why there
are only sons in the Diwananchand family.
Ranjit Lal has skillfully dealt with traditional and
modern situations.

SUMMARY

10

The protagonist named as Gurmeet acts as a savior

of the human society who protects the society from
superstitions.
In this story, Gurmi was brought up in the
Diwanchands family who were proud of the fact
that they had only sons in their family and from
days they hadnt fallen sick. This was believed to
be because of the well that provides elixir for
drinking.
Later, it seemed to be an amazing fact to the
protagonist who set out to find the well. It was a
very difficult task yet he accomplished it. There
comes a twist in the story. He discovered the ghost
of his sisters living inside the well and purifying the

water, who were earlier dumped by his parents and

elders. He became aware of the fact that he has
had three siblings and four cousin sisters. He came
to know the disgusting fact about his elders in his
family who slayed the daughters if they were born.
Slowly the changes took place in their family and
miraculous things began to happen.

11

The nature of Gurmis parents changed gradually

by the presence of the girls virtually in the
ancestral home. Earlier they were tough and soon
they became gentle. The parents also felt the
presence of the girls in their home. Then, Gurmis
mother gave birth to twin sisters. This time as
always, they took the babies and dropped them
inside the well. But Gurmi knew of their plan and
had prepared himself readily to protect his two
sisters.

When he brought his sisters back to home, the

elders were taken aback and he moaned against
the matter of family tradition.

12

Another twist comes in the story. Gurmis parents

accepted the twin sisters as their daughters and
later Gurmis father turned up his mind to convert
the ancestral house to a school as well as a
residing place for abandoned & neglected girls. Yet
Gurmi had a enjoyable vacation with a purpose to
remove the insatiable hunger of Diwanchands for
male children.

CHARACTER
GURMEET (GURMI)- The storys protagonist, fifteenyear-old Gurmi comes from a family that prides
itself on having only sons. He is precocious and
revengeful and even mentions to his sisters to take
revenge and poison the water because they were
dumped, only to protect the family honour. He does
not approve of the atrocious crime prevalent in his
family since ages.

13

NANNY, MOHINI, BISAKHA- Nanny is the second of the

three daughters of the Diwanchand family, younger
to Gurmi and addresses Gurmi as Bhaiyya. She
doesn't like Gurmi & even makes fun of him. Mohini
is the eldest daughter of the family. She is benign,
polite & soft Bisakha is hardly three to four years
old & cries when the rungs fall on her. She also
wants toffees from Gurmi.

GURMIS PARENTS-They are very strict, especially

Gurmis mother. She doesnt approve him of
knowing the age old secrets of the ancestral house.
His father on the other hand is a businessman who
owns the Hanuman motors and is often out on
work. His mother is very secretive and doesn't
want him to trouble the servants. She is very
protective about Gurmi.
OTHER SECONDARY CHARACTERS:
Balvinder uncle
Surinder aunty
Arnav, Varun, Donny(cousins)
14

Rama, Negi & Satwinder

Bhupinder uncle and Varsha aunty
Loveleen, Sagari, Anita and Richa

SETTING
PLACE:

15

This story has been set in the outskirts of Delhi

where Gurmis ancestral house is located. But he
is a real resident of Delhi. The story is mainly set
up in Diwanchands ancestral house which is
located at the base of the Aravali Mountains. Due
to the renovation work of the house in Delhi, Gurmi
has to live in the ancestral house . It is like an old
stone mansion, having some ancient hulking
mausoleum built of iron- coloured rocks, with
creepers crawling up the walls and deep verandas
running all around it. It is surrounded with huge
trees. At first it seems like a holiday resort of
Dracula to Gurmi.

The house is built around an open courtyard and

has a broad wooden-floored veranda running all
around it. With a very simple, square plan it looks
like a hotel consisting of nine bedrooms. The
veranda that runs around the house in the outside
is deep and dim and allows in a mossy green light,
making the bedrooms quite dim and cool. The most
important setting of the story is the presence of the
well in the courtyard which is quite far away from
the house. This story gives a brief idea about scenic
beauty of the setting.
TIME:

16

This story refers to the age old practice, rampant &

ubiquitous in India since centuries. The story is set
in the summer season & its protagonist comes to
spend his summer vacation in the ancestral house
due to the renovation of his own house. Initially
they plan for three months but later the plan
extends to one year.

ABOUT THE
CONFLICT &
RESOLUTION

17

A story can only be formed when there arises a

conflict. A story seems to be uninteresting without
a conflict. Similarly this story is a societal
practical conflict that has been around us since a
long time. In the story the primary conflict arises
in the Diwanchands family that is proud to raise
only the sons in their family and not to have any
daughter in their family. And if they take birth
they were assuredly dumped into the well in the
ancestral house by the elders of the family.
Every conflict has a resolution.

Similarly in this story the protagonist, Gurmi is

able to find the solution along with his ghostly
sisters who were earlier dumped inside the well. It
is a mystery for Gurmi at first when he meets his
sisters but gradually things become familiar. Soon
the presence of ghostly sisters in the house brings
prosperity in Gurmis family that results in the
change of behaviour of Gurmis parents. The
parents begin to feel the presence of these girls.

18

In the ending of the story when Gurmis mother

gives birth to his twin sisters the elders do a
similar kind of thing but precocious Gurmi saves
them from being taken to into the arms of death.
He brings them to home safely after they have
been dumped inside the well.

At last his parents decide to raise these two

daughters and the family tradition is finally given
up. One important step taken at last by Gurmis
father is that he decides to convert the ancestral
home into a school for abandoned girls. So this
resolution that they have taken towards protecting
the girl child at last leaves an important message
for the society against female infanticide.
19

MY VIEWS ON THE
BOOK
This is an interesting story book that deals with the
serious subject matter on female infanticide. This
is also quite adventurous
story with a little
humour. Different people have different ideas and
opinions. According to the authors thoughts it
satisfies the readers.

20

But yet we would like to suggest that if the

protagonist of the story have to go to hell in the
other world to meet his sisters then it would have
been a nice one. The story also deals with
numerous silent characters with no role in the
book.

The book conveys a very powerful message and

author has shown the injustice being done to girls
very nicely, still there are lots of parts where the
story is loosing focus from its main subject.
The ending of the story should have been a
revengeful one that if the sisters would have taken
the revenge on the elders for committing a such a
sin by adulteration of the elixir then it would have
been more interesting as it would have given the
message of Tit for Tat.

21

Yet it is a miraculous story in our opinions as it

antagonizes against the serious matter of the
society that is female infanticide.
Kudos to Ranjit Lal for such a thought-provoking
and marvelous book for spreading a good cause.

RATING

4/5
22

THANK
YOU!!!
23