This is a book review on Faces in the water. This was written by Ranjit Lal. Its a nice book for children that deals with the topic female infanticide.

2. NAME ROLL NUMBER
1. Salony Das 2
2. Subhrajeet Praharaj 5
3. Manoranjan Rath 7
4. Anshuman Pati 8
5. Astha Pattnaik 30
6. Shibani Sahoo 39

3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We the group members of The damned souls
convey our deep thanks to our English teacher
Shasank sir for providing his helping hand for
bringing out this project successfully. We would
also like to thank our group members for
cooperation.

4. CONTENT
1. GENERAL INFORMATION SLIDE NO. 05
2. INTRODUCTION SLIDE NO. 06
3. ABOUT THE AUTHOR SLIDE NO. 07
4. THEME SLIDE NO. 09
5. SUMMARY SLIDE NO. 11
6. CHARACTERS SLIDE NO. 15
7. SETTING SLIDE NO. 24
8. CONFLICT AND RESOLUTION SLIDE NO. 25
9. OUR VIEWS SLIDE NO. 26
10. RATING SLIDE NO. 27
11. THANK YOU SLIDE NO. 28

5. GENERAL INFORMATION
1. TITLE: Faces in the Water.
2. GENRE: Fiction.
3. AUTHOR: Ranjit Lal.
4. PUBLISHER: Puffin or Penguin Groups.
5. YEAR OF EDITION: 1 January 2010
6. PRICE: Rs. 250
7. PAGE: 208
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6. INTRODUCTION
This is a rather sensitive topic and one that
most writers would not like to write
about. It is about families wanting to
have only boys. However, if by chance
a female child is born how the problem
is sorted out forms the crux of the book.
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7. Ranjit Lal was born in Kolkata in 1955, and educated in
Mumbai, graduating in Economics and Sociology. As
a freelance writer and columnist, he has over a
thousand articles, short stories, features and photo-
features published in over fifty newspapers and
magazines in India and abroad. He has special
interest in areas like natural history, photography,
humour, satire and automobiles, on which he writes
for both adults and children.

8. He is one of the few Indian journalists to write satire
and humour on a sustained basis. He has authored
several books including The Crow Chronicles,The Life
and Times of Altu Faltu, That Summer at Kalagarh, The
Bossman Adventures, Enjoying Birds, Birds of Delhi, Birds
from My Window, The Caterpillar Who Went on a Diet
and Other Stories, When Banshee Kissed
Bimbo and The Battle for No.19. Ranjit Lal lives in Delhi.
Ranjit Lal.
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9. FEMALE INFANTICIDE
Female infanticide is the deliberate killing of newborn female children.
The main theme of the story is female infanticide. All the girls of
Diwanchand family are dumped in the well of their ancestral house.
But as the story progress every one realises that it is wrong. At last every
member of the family accepts Sameera, Shanti &Aparna.

10. LOVE BETWEEN BROTHERS & SISTERS
The story is a live example of the love between the brothers and
sisters. Love between all the brothers and sisters is highly remarkable.
The way in which a fifteen year old boy jumps into the well to save the
life of his twin sisters justifies that.
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11. SUMMARY
The story began in the house of our
protagonist, Gurmeet Diwanchand. His
mother told him to go to their ancestral
house because of renovation works of their
house in Delhi. Gurmeet was happy to go
that house. This is because… The
Diwanchands were proud of two things. First
thing, only boys born in their family. Second,
they never fell sick. The credit for the above
goes to the water they drink from the well of
their ancestral house(badikothi). That’s why
he was very happy to visit the badikothi.
When he reaches badikothi, he wanted to
explore the area especially the well. At last
when he looked down the well he saw
faces… faces into the water. Three girls
looked up to Gurmeet with a placard ”
Welcome Gurmeet! Love- Mohini, Nandini,
Baby.”

12. SUMMARY
At first, Gurmeet could not believe that
there were girls inside the well water. He
realised them slowly. And they became
friends. Mohini told him that they were in
the well because they were girls . Gurmeet
decided to ask this to his mother. He was
very angry with his parents. Mohini told him
to relax and not to say them anything
because they were their parents. Then with
the help of Mohini ‘s program they enjoyed
a lot in the swimming pool. Then he was
introduced with Lovleen. Then they went to
the lawn playing French Cricket and they
had a nice time together. Then after a few
days Varun, Arnav, Sushma, Balbir, Surinder
(Arnav & Varun’s mom) came to the
badikothi. Nandini made pranks on Surinder
but the blame went to Gurmeet.

13. SUMMARY
Later on, Gurmeet asked Mohini whether
she had any software in her laptop such
that they could live with them in
badikothi. Mohini replied in affirmative.
Then they began to live in the badikothi.
Sushma & Balbir, Gurmeet’s parents felt
their presence but they couldn’t see any
of them. In this particular time they
realised that they had done mistakes by
murdering the girls. But, Gurmeet, Arnav,
Varun and the other girls were busy in
playing with each other. One day they
had a race in between themselves in
which Donny(Bhuinder & Varsha’s Son)
won. After a few day they celebrated
rakhi in which all the girls tied the knot in
Gurmeet’s hand and he gave them Gifts.

14. After next few days, Surinder and
Lajwati (Surinder’s assistant) came to
the badikothi. It was the time to
deliver the baby of Sushma. Gurmeet
was not allowed to see those. But
somehow, he saw everything. The
babies were twin girls. Surinder and
Lajwati threw them into the well. But
Gurmeet saved them and made his
parents realise they were wrong.
Later on, his parents accepted the
girls. From that day onwards Girls
were accepted by the
Diwanchands. So, it was all a
“HAPPY ENDING.”
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15. Balbir & Sushma
Mohini Nandini Gurmeet Baby Sameera Shanti
Balvinder &
Surinder
Lovleen Sagari Arnav Varun

16. Bhupinder
& Barsha
Anita Richa Donny Aparna
Other Characters…
1.Rama
2. Negi
3. Satvinder
4. Lajwati

17. HI Friendz…!! Meet me….
I am Gurmeet Diwanchand. You can call
me Gurmi. I am fifteen year old boy. I am
brilliant student and expert in computers. I
am the protagonist of the novel. I am very
honest and caring. I am a lovely brother. I
talk to my sisters brings gifts for them. I am
the real hero of this book.

18. Hi!!! I am the eldest sister of
protagonist, Gurmi. I am very fair. I
am an intelligent as I stood first in
my 12th board exam scoring 99.7%.
According to Gurmeet, I will look
like his mother when I will grow old.
My computer programs has helped
us to go back to past and spend
time together.

19. Hi!! Let me Introduce
myself…
I am Nandini. You can call me
Nanni. I have curly hair and a
round face. I am very naughty
and would tease the protagonist,
Gurmeet. I am somewhat like a
tomboyish character. I am fond of
racing cars and SUVs. I always
make fun of Surinderji and blame
Gurmi for the same.

20. Hey guyz… Meet me..
I am the most beautiful girl
among them. I am pale and
very fair. I have shiny light
brown hair. I am the only one
who was busy with mirror all
the time. I am the eldest
daughter of Surinder
Diwanchand.

21. Hey. Meet me. I am the villain.
I am the antagonist of the novel. I
am Balvinder’s wife and a
gynecologist by profession. Author
repeatedly calls me as a warthog.
I used to do all sort of work of
pregnant women for my family. I
throw the girl child into the well in
the ancestral house. Lajwati is
my assistant.

22. I am Sushma Diwanchand and
mother of your protagonist,
Gurmeet. I am fair good looking
lady but little obese. I realise the
fact that I have done mistake by
throwing the girls in the well when I
came to Badi kothi.

23. I am Balbir Diwanchand and
the father of Gurmeet. I am
heavily built man and six feet
one inch tall. Like Sushma,
when I came to Badi kothi, I
realised the mistake and at
last I accepted my twin
daughters- Sameera & Shanti.
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24. The setting of the story is not mentioned in the
novel. Since the book is published in 2010 and the
story deals with racing cars, SUVs, it seems that the
time is late 20th century or 21st century. The place
where the novel and all the incidents took place
is Delhi. Gurmeet’s house is located in Delhi. It
takes one hour and twenty minutes to reach
Ancestral house from Gurmeet’s house. Ancestral
house is located near the Aravali hill ranges.
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25. The main conflict of the novel is “female infanticide”.
Diwanchand family used to throw their girl kids in the
just after they were born. Protagonist, Gurmeet,
works very hard on this topic. He was helped by all
her sisters to make the family realise that they are
wrong. At the end he successfully does it. The family
then, accepts Shanti, Sameera & Aparna as their
daughters.
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26.  Although it is an adult topic, it is written in such a
manner which makes it appropriate for children
as well. The author has put lots of funny incidents
related to magic, cyber world and lots of charm.
There is a bit of twist in the end of this story.
 The description of the girls, their innocence, their
expressions are narrated very beautifully and it
made us laughed at sometimes as well as bought
some tears in our eyes many times.
 There are a few plot holes, for instance, if the
women were pregnant so often, surely the
neighbours remarked on how the women turned
up without a child at the end of it.
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