New Delhi, May 3 -- Four angry women, in Bengali writer Kabita Singha's eponymous novel, decide to go "out flying for a whole day" one winter in Calcutta (now Kolkata), most likely in the 1950s. Suman, Bulan, Renu and Chuni are fashionably bedecked as they walk from Dalhousie towards Park Street. On the verge of adulthood, they evoke a lurid curiosity among the public, especially in the men who flock around them. But the girls do not care. They plan to get a drink at the famous Olympia bar (though drinking is forbidden to them), have a hearty meal, and enjoy their outing, come what may.

As they walk down Chowringhee, the women take a nosy uncle to task, mock the young men trailing them, and venture into places where girls from good famil...