While at this post, Shankar encounters, rescues and nurses Diego Alvarez, a middle-age Portuguese explorer and gold/diamond prospector. Later, he takes up a job as station-master in a desolate station amidst the Veldts, where he narrowly escapes a deadly black mamba. By a stroke of luck, he gets a job as a clerk at the Uganda Railway and rushes to Africa without a second thought.Īfter a few months laying rail tracks, he encounters the first of many dangers in pre- World War I Africa: a man-eating lion. He wants to explore the wilderness, passionate for learning about African forests and animals. Shankar loves the subject of geography, he wants to follow the footsteps of renowned explorers like Livingstone, Mungo Park, and Marco Polo. After graduating from college at 20-years-old, his family's financial struggles almost force him take a job in a jute mill in Shyamnagar - a prospect he absolutely loathes. This novel tells the story of an ordinary young Bengali man, Shankar Ray Choudhuri, as he adventures in Africa in the years 19.
