Download or read book Climbing the Stairs written by Padma Venkatraman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-02-04 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Read Padma Venkatraman's posts on the Penguin Blog. Fifteen-year-old Vidya dreams of going to college— an unusual aspiration for a girl living in British occupied India during World War II. Then tragedy strikes, and Vidya and her brother are forced to move into a traditional household with their extended family, where women are meant to be married, not educated. Breaking the rules, Vidya finds refuge in her grandfather’s library. But then her brother does something unthinkable, and Vidya’s life becomes a whirlwind of political and personal complications. The question is, will she be strong enough to survive? Watch a Video