A young girl in Karachi whose family did not allow her to study beyond the fourth standard; an eager girl who read all the papers especially for information on new discoveries in science and worried that there would be nothing left for her to discover if they did not let her study further; a twenty-two year old girl walking on the streets of Bombay with her brother after Partition, to find out if the city could give succour to her large family of five sisters and five brothers; a research scientist who never got tired of her laboratory; a sanyasi who wants to find out the nature of the subject since as a scientist she can grapple only with the objective world. These images of strength and resilience emerge from the narration of Shantoo Gurnani - a narration that informs us about educational choices women made in the thirties and forties and the careers in science opening out for women in the early half of the century.