Maps for Lost Lovers

I am reading this book, written by Nadeem Aslam, the author of the award winning Season of the Rainbirds (1993). Born in Pakistan, he now lives in England.

From the Blurb:
In an unnamed English town Jugnu and his lover Chanda have disappeared. Rumours abound in the close-knit Pakistani community, and then on a snow-covered January morning Chanda's brothers are arrested for murder. Telling the story of the next twelve months, Maps for Lost Lovers opens the heart of a family at the crossroads of culture, community, nationality and religion, and expresses their pain in a language that is arrestingly poetic.

A Paragraph from Page 11:
A child in a house full of lonely migrant workers, she was the focus of everyone’s tenderness. It was a time in England (AROUND 1950’s in the story) when the white attitude towards the dark-skinned foreigners was just beginning to go from I don’t want to see them or work next to them to I don’t mind working next to them if I’m forced to, as long as I don’t have to speak to them, an attitude that would change again within the next ten years to I don’t mind speaking to them when I have to in the work place, as long as I don’t have to talk to them outside the working hours, and then in another ten years to I don’t mind them socializing in the same place as me if they must, as long as I don’t have to live next to them.

A riddle from the book, page 16:
"Twelve or so princess deep in conversation in their palace, huddled in a circle."

Whats the answer???? Keep visiting my blog, I will post the answer in couple of weeks.

[Longlisted for THE Man BOOKER PRIZE 2004, and winner of the 2005 Kiriyama Prize]
[Will cost you 360 Nepali Rupees, if you can bargain, may be lesser...]