Refusal of Site 14

In the novel: 1991 · Updated 2026-07-28 · timeline

In 1991 Jagdish Wagh refuses the plot the novel calls Site 14, a creek-side parcel with an unresolved dispute over the land. The refusal costs the firm its largest available job at a point when it can least afford the loss, and it becomes the decision his reputation is built on — the proof, repeated by others for two decades, that he does not take questionable ground. He takes the same plot in 2008. The novel does not settle whether that is a reversal or a capitulation.

The refusal is reported secondhand for most of the novel, by people who were not there.