Indian Summers
Aug. 31st, 2016 12:55 amNow I've watched the last episode of the second, and as I've just found out, the last season of Indian Summers. I find India's culture fascinating and I also love historic series (and movies, books etc) so when I found that the series was coming to Swedish tv, naturally I wanted to watch it. Having seen the end of the series, I can now say I'm really glad I did. There were times I thought I might have to stop watching, but fortunately, that turned out not to be necessary. No matter how tragic and somber the plot got, I found the whole series well worth watching. At times there were some characters I didn't like, but at least I found them all very interesting and I felt I could understand why they were the way they were.
For those of you who can still look forward to watching the series, it's a historic series set in the 1930's in India, ruled by Great Britain. If I get any of the terms wrong, I hope I can count on my readers to correct me.
Here is a list of the main characters and a little about them:
Alice, who has a little son, travels to India from England to join her brother who is working for the colonial authorities if that's the correct term. She claims to be a widow, but it's soon apparent that that's not quite true.
Her brother Ralph Whelan is a man torn between the demands his employers has on him and his longing to be a part of a family. At times he can be quite ruthless, while at others, he's kind and loving towards his family.
Cynthia is the head of the club which is a very important hub of the 'colonials' social life. She's also fiercely loyal to Ralph, who she regards as a son. That means she is willing to do anything, and I mean anything, to protect Ralph.
Aafrin Dalal works for the colonial authorities too and Ralph is his boss. Aafrins family is very British, and as it turns out, at heart they are quite racist. The family are Parsi which is a minority people in India and I believe they belong to the minority religion Zoroastrism. Aafrin has two younger sisters, one of which has a degree in law. Sooni has a strong will and does not conform to her parents expectations of her. The youngest sister feels neglected but is a good student and seems to find it easier to follow the rules her parents impose of her.
There's also a missionary Dougie Raworth and his wife Sarah, and son. The wife is jealous of the missionary's work and as it turns out, she has good reason for that. Her husband is cheating on her with one of his oldest 'girls' - Leena, a mixed breed orphan.
At the beginning of the series everyone's traveling north to the summer quarters of the colonial government in the mountains. Traveling up there to escape the heat on the plains is what everyone does, every year. There's an accident and the train stops. A little boy of mixed breed is lying on the tracks. He has been abused, but is alive and the missionaries take him to the orphanage to care for him.
Almost at once you find out that the boy, Adam, is Ralph's son. The boy's mother, Jaya, is still in love with Ralph and that is a threat to his position. Soon she is found murdered.
Ian McLeod is a young man who has travelled to India to join his uncle at a tea farm the latter owns. Except there's an Indian man Ramu Sood, who feels he is the rightful owner of the land.
Ian takes the Indian man's side and becomes friends with him. That a native man tries to challenge the colonials is not popular and the murder of Ralph's lover Jaya, is blamed on him and he's executed. From then on Ian sides with the natives and is shunned by the British community.
I won't go into what else the series is about, except to say that you soon start to connect with the main characters and root for them. Indian Summers is a well made, engaging look at an interesting period of time, set in a fascinating place. If you're interested in history, you should watch it.
For those of you who can still look forward to watching the series, it's a historic series set in the 1930's in India, ruled by Great Britain. If I get any of the terms wrong, I hope I can count on my readers to correct me.
Here is a list of the main characters and a little about them:
Alice, who has a little son, travels to India from England to join her brother who is working for the colonial authorities if that's the correct term. She claims to be a widow, but it's soon apparent that that's not quite true.
Her brother Ralph Whelan is a man torn between the demands his employers has on him and his longing to be a part of a family. At times he can be quite ruthless, while at others, he's kind and loving towards his family.
Cynthia is the head of the club which is a very important hub of the 'colonials' social life. She's also fiercely loyal to Ralph, who she regards as a son. That means she is willing to do anything, and I mean anything, to protect Ralph.
Aafrin Dalal works for the colonial authorities too and Ralph is his boss. Aafrins family is very British, and as it turns out, at heart they are quite racist. The family are Parsi which is a minority people in India and I believe they belong to the minority religion Zoroastrism. Aafrin has two younger sisters, one of which has a degree in law. Sooni has a strong will and does not conform to her parents expectations of her. The youngest sister feels neglected but is a good student and seems to find it easier to follow the rules her parents impose of her.
There's also a missionary Dougie Raworth and his wife Sarah, and son. The wife is jealous of the missionary's work and as it turns out, she has good reason for that. Her husband is cheating on her with one of his oldest 'girls' - Leena, a mixed breed orphan.
At the beginning of the series everyone's traveling north to the summer quarters of the colonial government in the mountains. Traveling up there to escape the heat on the plains is what everyone does, every year. There's an accident and the train stops. A little boy of mixed breed is lying on the tracks. He has been abused, but is alive and the missionaries take him to the orphanage to care for him.
Almost at once you find out that the boy, Adam, is Ralph's son. The boy's mother, Jaya, is still in love with Ralph and that is a threat to his position. Soon she is found murdered.
Ian McLeod is a young man who has travelled to India to join his uncle at a tea farm the latter owns. Except there's an Indian man Ramu Sood, who feels he is the rightful owner of the land.
Ian takes the Indian man's side and becomes friends with him. That a native man tries to challenge the colonials is not popular and the murder of Ralph's lover Jaya, is blamed on him and he's executed. From then on Ian sides with the natives and is shunned by the British community.
I won't go into what else the series is about, except to say that you soon start to connect with the main characters and root for them. Indian Summers is a well made, engaging look at an interesting period of time, set in a fascinating place. If you're interested in history, you should watch it.
