Sagarika Roy’s Whispers of Kalatmak merges the allure of Indian folklore with a distinctly modern examination of choice, freedom, and identity. The novel begins in familiar terrain—an ambitious young woman wrestling with the expectations of a wealthy Mumbai family—but soon veers into the territory of the uncanny, proving that the most powerful ghosts are often societal.
Aarusha Khanna, the protagonist, is not a stereotypical rebel. She is dutiful, intelligent, and trained to inherit the family empire, yet she harbors a private longing to write. When a beloved grandmother passes and a series of personal losses erode her certainty, Aarusha is drawn to the story of Kalatmak—a desert village cursed by the legend of a “daakan,” or witch. Defying her family, she sets off alone to Rajasthan, propelled as much by a need for self-definition as by curiosity.
Roy excels at world-building. Her descriptions of Kalatmak—mud houses under a pitiless sun, wells dark with ominous stillness—evoke both dread and fascination. The village is at once a physical locale and a liminal space where past and present blur. Through Amba Mai, the elderly villager who welcomes Aarusha, the book offers an oral history of women’s resilience: arranged marriages at adolescence, artistry lost to drought, and communal rituals that keep memory alive even as outsiders dismiss them as superstition.
One of the novel’s triumphs is its nuanced treatment of myth. Rather than presenting the curse as mere folklore or literal horror, Roy lets ambiguity reign. Are the deaths and misfortunes the work of a supernatural force, or the cumulative effect of patriarchy, climate, and isolation? By refusing to resolve the mystery neatly, the author invites readers to confront how myths arise to explain collective trauma.
The narrative also explores the tension between independence and belonging. Aarusha’s journey is not just a geographical escape but a confrontation with her own privilege. Her gradual kinship with Kalatmak’s women underscores a shared struggle: whether in a corporate boardroom or a forgotten village, women must fight to define their own stories.
If there is a flaw, it lies in the novel’s occasional indulgence in lengthy interior monologues. Some readers may wish for tighter editing as Aarusha reflects—sometimes repeatedly—on the same themes of freedom and duty. Yet these meditations are faithful to the character’s transformation and to the book’s contemplative spirit.
Ultimately, Whispers of Kalatmak stands as a powerful exploration of how personal liberation intertwines with cultural remembrance. It is a novel that treats folklore not as escapism but as a vessel of truth, and that sees women—past and present—as the keepers of those truths. Sagarika Roy has delivered a debut that is both haunting and hopeful, proving that the most enduring whispers are those of courage.
Title: Whispers of Kalatmak
Author: Sagarika Roy
Publisher: Evincepub Publishing