Vermilion Harvest: Playtime at the Bagh by Hora, Reenita M.

In a politically tense Amritsar, India, Aruna, an Anglo-Indian schoolteacher, and Ayaz, a feisty Muslim law student, fall in love only to discover that courting openly is easier said than done. Not only are they from different communities, but his political activism during the tumultuous year of 1919 comes at the cost of their romance. 

Against the deadline of a military order, Aruna, who is only nineteen, must find her lover and warn him about Colonel Dyer's impending attack on Jallianwala Bagh. An attack that is eventually heard around the world. 

Playtime at the Bagh during Baishakhi is a metaphor for Colonel Dyer's rain of bullets released upon thousands on the one fateful day of April 13th, 1919.

Love, hate, denial, and betrayal are wrapped inside a single love story capturing today's hope with yesterday's despair..