The Unholy Union

When Aalia Farheen steps into a Boston university seminar room, she carries with her more than books and dreams-she carries the ghosts of a caste system that still haunts her, and the pressure of being visible in a world that renders women like her invisible or exotic. Quiet, sharp-eyed, and uncompromising, Aalia doesn't come to be digested. She comes to survive.

Across the room sits Meera Rajagopalan, a Tamil student on exchange from Delhi, whose education has always come with expectations-...