A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies
Stories
Chapter One
The Hill Station
On the first morning of the training in Bombay, just minutes before
she collapsed, Elizabeth Dinakar stood in front of two hundred
people in the conference hall, pointed up at the cholera bacteria
magnified on the wall in front of her, and said "This is your
enemy." The room was long and stuffy, with peeling walls and
rattling air conditioners. People coughed and shuffled papers. The
bacteria were the size of cars. Elizabeth Dinakar was tall and thin
with thick black eyebrows. Her hair was pulled away from her face
and held in a bun at the back of her head. She wore a silk shirt and
khaki skirt, flat-soled shoes, and no makeup.
She talked slowly and illustrated everything she said with grap ... read full excerpt from Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies, ebook
