Oh yes! This is a wonderful, amazing and magical book. It also turns out that my favorite filmmaker, M. Night Shayamalan, (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village) has family in the same locale in India where this book takes place, and he's working on the movie version now.
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"Patterns are set in one place and time, to be followed to the end of all years to come". (Andre Norton)